Elon Musk may have put the final nail in X’s coffin.On Wednesday, Musk appeared to support an anti-Semite postal User @breakingbaht claimed that “the Jewish community has been promoting dialectical hatred against white people, and they claim to want people to stop using this hatred against them.” In response, Musk posted, “You told the truth.”
The original post seemed to echo people’s beliefs “Great alternative” Conspiracy theories are popular among white supremacists and right-wing extremists. This claim was quickly met with backlash.in a statement earlier todayWhite House spokesman Andrew Bates denounced “the promotion of anti-Semitism and racist hatred in the strongest possible terms as contrary to our core values as Americans,” and big-name advertisers were quick to withdraw their business. IBM, Disney, Lyonsgate, and the European Union have pulled X ads in response to Musk’s post. Report in AxiosApple also suspended advertising on X.
As of press time, Apple has not responded to multiple requests for comment or confirmed that it is pulling ads from X.
“Advertisers like IBM and Apple are not only big names, they are big spenders on X,” said Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters. Media Matters is a media watchdog group that has been tracking advertiser behavior on X. Carusone, Quoting data shared by data insights company Sensor TowerIt said that the top five spending advertisers on July X were Apple, FinanceBuzz.io, Amazon, Mondelēz International and HP. In the past, Apple has frequently been among the top 20 advertisers on X.
Carusone added that Apple typically signals a level of brand safety to other, smaller advertisers. The company is also known for its strict policies against controversial content on the App Store and its own platforms. If Apple has suspended or plans to suspend, Carusone claimed that running ads on X “could create a halo effect,” scaring other advertisers away from the platform. “This goes way beyond money.”
August, X CEO Linda Yaccarino highlighted that the company is expanding its brand safety tools, designed to give advertisers and marketers more control over the types of content their ads appear near.