IBM Suspends Ads On X: X races to contain damage after Elon Musk endorses antisemitic post
LOS ANGELES: Less than 24 hours after Elon Musk endorsed an antisemitic post on X as “the actual truth” of what Jewish people were doing, IBM paused its advertising on the social media platform as X’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, and others at the company scrambled Thursday to contain the fallout.
X employees said Thursday they had gotten calls from advertisers wondering why Musk was making comments seen as antisemitic and why their ads were showing up next to white nationalist and Nazi content, according to internal messages viewed by New York Times.IBM cut off about $1 million in advertising spending it had committed to the platform for the last three months of the year, the messages said.
In a note to employees Thursday, Yaccarino said “X is a platform for everyone” and that “discrimination by everyone should STOP across the board.” She said the company had been clear about its work to fight antisemitism and discrimination, and later shared a similar message on X.
In a statement, IBM said it “has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation.”
The European Commission also told its servers to stop advertising on X due to the “alarming increase in disinformation and hate speech.”
Musk, who bought Twitter last year and renamed it X, has faced increasing criticism that he has tolerated and even encouraged antisemitic abuse on his platform. He has attacked George Soros, a financier who is a frequent target of antisemitic abuse, and threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League that had highlighted the rise in antisemitism on X.
On Wednesday, Musk went further when he agreed with a post from an X account accusing Jewish communities of pushing “hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.” Jewish people are now “coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much,” it added.
“You have said the actual truth,” Musk replied.
Jewish groups have compared the statement Musk endorsed to the “Great Replacement Theory,” the far-right idea that minorities are replacing white European populations.
Social media platforms have faced rising scrutiny since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out on October 7. Antisemitic and Islamophobic hate speech has surged across sites, particularly on X, according to the Anti-Defamation League and researchers. Agencies
X employees said Thursday they had gotten calls from advertisers wondering why Musk was making comments seen as antisemitic and why their ads were showing up next to white nationalist and Nazi content, according to internal messages viewed by New York Times.IBM cut off about $1 million in advertising spending it had committed to the platform for the last three months of the year, the messages said.
In a note to employees Thursday, Yaccarino said “X is a platform for everyone” and that “discrimination by everyone should STOP across the board.” She said the company had been clear about its work to fight antisemitism and discrimination, and later shared a similar message on X.
In a statement, IBM said it “has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation.”
The European Commission also told its servers to stop advertising on X due to the “alarming increase in disinformation and hate speech.”
Musk, who bought Twitter last year and renamed it X, has faced increasing criticism that he has tolerated and even encouraged antisemitic abuse on his platform. He has attacked George Soros, a financier who is a frequent target of antisemitic abuse, and threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League that had highlighted the rise in antisemitism on X.
On Wednesday, Musk went further when he agreed with a post from an X account accusing Jewish communities of pushing “hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.” Jewish people are now “coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much,” it added.
“You have said the actual truth,” Musk replied.
Jewish groups have compared the statement Musk endorsed to the “Great Replacement Theory,” the far-right idea that minorities are replacing white European populations.
Social media platforms have faced rising scrutiny since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out on October 7. Antisemitic and Islamophobic hate speech has surged across sites, particularly on X, according to the Anti-Defamation League and researchers. Agencies
