The technology giant Apple is going to suspend its advertising on the social network Axios.
Companies like IBM or Lionsgate and institutions like the European Commission have decided in the last few hours to suspend their advertising on X after on Wednesday Musk gave his support to a message with allusions to a conspiracy theory about Jews that was condemned this Friday as anti-Semitic and racist by the White House.
This Friday, the entertainment giant Disney also joined the companies that have paused their campaigns on the platform. Likewise, the Comcast and NBCUniversal networks, and the Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery studios, which own the CNN television channel, suspended their advertising on the social network.
According to Axios, the decision by Apple, which is one of the largest advertisers on noted in a recent report.
Musk responded Wednesday to a user’s post on the social media site that said “Jewish communities have been pushing exactly the kind of dialectical hatred against white people that they claim they want people to stop using against them.”
The user’s message also alluded to a conspiracy theory that argues that Jews have supported the arrival of non-white populations to Western countries; theory supported by the man who attacked a synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018 and killed 11 people. “You told the honest truth,” Musk replied to that user.
On Thursday, a day after the comment, the progressive NGO Media Matters for America published an article exposing that advertisements from big brands such as Apple, Bravo, Oracle, Xfinity and IBM have been appearing near “pro-Nazi” messages. in X. Musk, in a message on his social network after the publication of the article, said that Media Matters “is an evil organization.”
In parallel, a group of 164 “Jewish leaders”, including rabbis, artists and academics of “diverse ideologies”, issued a statement denouncing “anti-Semitism in X”, accusing Musk of “propagating it” and demanding that these large companies stop to finance it. Subsequently, IBM announced that it was suspending its advertising “while it investigates this completely unacceptable situation,” and Lionsgate told the media through a spokesperson that it would also withdraw it.
The European Commission asked its services this Friday to suspend its advertising campaigns in
Amid the uproar caused by Musk’s interaction, X’s top executive, Linda Yaccarino, said Thursday that the company has been “extremely clear about its efforts to combat anti-Semitism and discrimination,” but did not address her boss. in any moment.
