Companies have started pulling out their ads from popular social media platform X, after the CEO of the platform, Elon Musk, was seen publicly endorsing and supporting a seemingly antisemitic conspiracy theory. The latest companies to join the ad pullout are Apple, Lionsgate, and Disney. Warner Bros. and Paramount have also seemingly paused their ads on the platform.
The first company to stage this pullout was IBM, after they spotted their ad feature next to a Pro Nazi content tweet. This led to a snowball effect and soon enough, watch dog group Media Matters reported that ads from Apple, Oracle and other tech bigwigs were found alongside similar anti-semitic content.
When questioned about this, a spokesperson from X quickly clarified that the content in question was not monetisable and the platform does not deliberately place ads alongside such content. X CEO Linda Yaccarino also said that “X has also been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination.”
X’s ad business has been struggling recently, and the pull out from these big tech giants will only be another nail in the coffin. To make matters worse, a recent tweet from Musk, where he offered his support for a seemingly anti-semitic conspiracy theory has ruffled a few feathers and will inadvertently lead to more companies pulling out their ads from the platform.
Now, the ad pull out is not permanent as the reports seem to indicate that the companies in question have elected to ‘pause’ their ads on the platform, which means that if there is some sort of clean up, or apology from the platform, these companies could negotiate a return of their ads on the platform. Apple CEO Tim Cook recently had a few disagreements with Elon Musk over advertising policies and this is also one of the reasons for Apple to pause their ads on the platform.
This development doesn’t bode well for X as Elon Musk earlier revealed that since the rebranding, the ad revenue of the platform was down 50%. This in turn impact the revenue sharing program that X is running. At the moment, this is how things stand. Stay tuned to this space for updates on this as they come.
