- Musk endorsed a tweet that Jews promote “dialectical hatred against whites”
- IBM, Disney, and Comcast have also suspended advertising on X
Apple has halted all advertising activity on X after owner Elon Musk endorsed an antisemitic post on the platform, formerly known as Twitter, leading world media wrote. This decision follows a similar one made by IBM and Disney.
Musk endorsed a tweet claiming that Jewish communities promoted “dialectical hatred against whites.” Jewish community leaders reacted strongly to this move, prompting Apple and other leading corporations to rethink their advertising strategies. Among those corporations is Comcast, the parent company of CNBC, Bravo, and Xfinity.
X fights back
The social media platform made corresponding efforts to mitigate the controversy. Its CEO, Linda Yaccarino, drew attention to X’s efforts to combat antisemitism. This was done to counter a recent report by a media organization, which claimed that advertisements from corporations such as Amazon, Apple, IBM, and Oracle were showing next to far-right and antisemitic content.
Reportedly, the social medium has been working to demonetize such content, but the result of these efforts is not clear yet.
Musk’s shifting view of free speech
Elon Musk has expressed varying views on free speech, and his stance has often depended on the context and specific issues at hand. Earlier this year, he blamed the non-profit Anti-Defamation League for driving billions of dollars in advertising from X, even threatening to sue it.
The ADL, which fights all forms of antisemitism, criticized X for not taking action against hate speech. It accused the platform of removing fewer than a third of all posts flagged for antisemitic content. Several other civil rights groups joined the ADL in calling for advertiser boycotts.
The future of advertising on X
Apple has paused advertising on X indefinitely, which raises the question about the future relationship between the social medium and major advertisers. In the past, Apple briefly reduced its advertising on X after Musk acquired it and made changes to how it worked.
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