Apple, Disney, IBM pull ads from X over antisemitic material

Apple, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery on Friday became the latest big companies to pause advertising on X, formerly Twitter.

Film studio Lionsgate also said it was pausing advertisements on X.

A slew of large companies have pulled advertising dollars from Elon Musk's company after he endorsed an antisemitic tweet this week.

The setback comes as X tries to win back big brands and ad dollars and as scrutiny over disinformation on X, especially over the Israel-Hamas war, grows.

Report says ads placed next to antisemitic material

IBM said it stopped advertising on X after a report by the liberal advocacy group Media Matters said its ads were appearing alongside material praising Nazis. 

Media Matters said Thursday that ads from Apple, Oracle, NBCUniversal's Bravo network and Comcast were also placed next to antisemitic material on the platform.

"IBM 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 company said in a statement.

The fallout continues as experts document a rise in controversial content espoused by hate groups on the platform, but the company has disputed the claims.

Elon Musk responds to antisemitic tweet, sparks outcry

Elon Musk this week responded to a user who accused Jews of hating white people and professing indifference to antisemitism, a conspiracy theory popular among White supremacists.

"You have said the actual truth," Musk tweed in a reply to the user, shocking people and critics who have accused Musk of tolerating antisemitic messages on the platform since purchasing it last year.

The content on X  has also gained increasing scrutiny since the war between Israel and Hamas terrorists began.

A coalition of 164 Jewish leaders and academics issued a statement responding to Musk's tweet, calling on companies like Disney, Apple and Amazon and other large advertisers to "stop funding X through their ad spend."

Musk threatens legal action against activist group

A defiant Musk vowed Saturday that his X Corp would file a "thermonuclear lawsuit" next week "against Media Matters and ALL those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company."

He retweeted a statement from X accusing Media Matters of threatening the platform's attempts to maintain freedom of expression because "they perceive it as a threat to their ideological narrative."

The European Union's executive branch said separately Friday that it is pausing its advertising on X and other social media platforms, in part because of a surge in hate speech.

mm, rm/sms (Reuters, AP)