More advertisers are stopping spending on X in a growing backlash against Musk

More major advertisers have paused their spending on X, the social media service formerly known as Twitter, as backlash over Elon Musk’s endorsement of the anti-Semitic X conspiracy theory continues.

Entertainment company Warner Bros. Discovery and Sony have joined other prominent brands in halting their spending on X. IBM cut its advertising on which owns CBS, paused all its advertising on Friday.

The spending freeze comes as X struggles to win back advertisers who were wary of spending on the platform after Mr Musk acquired it more than a year ago and said he would relax content moderation rules. Big brands tend to be cautious about placing their ads next to posts that contain offensive or hate speech.

Mr. Musk, who bought Twitter in October 2022 and renamed it X, drew scrutiny this week after responding to a post on White people who claim they want people to stop using them against them” and support the immigration of “hordes of minorities.”

“You told the actual truth, Mr. Musk.” He replied. Jewish groups said Mr Musk’s message reinforced a conspiracy theory known as the replacement theory, which claims that Jews organized non-white immigrants to replace the white race. This concept was adopted by Robert Bowers, who killed 11 worshipers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.

Mr. Musk’s statement drew condemnation from the White House on Friday. White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement, “It is unacceptable to repeat the heinous lie behind the deadliest act of anti-Semitism in American history at any time, let alone one month after the bloodiest day for the Jewish people since World War II.” holocaust.”

Mr. Musk criticized advertisers who pulled their dollars from X on Friday, and threatened legal action against Media Matters, a left-wing advocacy organization that said it had found Anti-Semitic content on X It highlighted ads for Apple, IBM and other brands that appeared alongside posts promoting Hitler and the Nazi Party.

in mail On Friday night, Mr. Musk said: “Beginning in District Court on Monday, X Corp will file a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and all who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company.”

X said the search strategy used by Media Matters to detect ads that ran alongside anti-Semitic content was not representative of how ordinary people use its platform. The organization followed the accounts that posted the content, then updated X’s timeline so the ads appeared, X said in a statement Blog post. X added that only one of the nine posts highlighted by Media Matters violated its content moderation rules.

In a statement, Joe Benarroch, head of business operations at He added: “Data triumphs over allegations.”

Media Matters said it would defend itself from the lawsuits brought by “. , President of Media Matters. “Musk admitted that the ads in question were alongside the pro-Nazi content we identified. This is like getting angry at a mirror because you don’t like your reflection. If he sues us, we will prevail.”

Ryan Mac Contributed to reports.