One more controversy for Elon Musk. Several very important advertisers, such as IBM, Apple, Disney and Warner Bros, have announced that they are suspending all their advertising on the social network
The latter responded on Wednesday to the owner of an account on the social network, who wrote that Jewish people encouraged “hatred against white people”, with this message: “You told the exact truth.” Enough to provoke a very rapid reaction from the White House, which this Friday, November 17, accused Elon Musk of making “abject promotion of anti-Semitic and racist hatred”. For Washington, this publication is the direct relay of a conspiracy theory popular among white nationalists, according to which Jews have a secret plan to promote illegal immigration in Western countries in order to undermine the white majority there. “It is unacceptable to repeat the heinous lie that led to the deadliest act of anti-Semitism in American history,” Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, said in a statement. in reference to the attack in a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, which left 11 dead.
A very significant loss of income
In addition to the White House, several very important advertisers have decided to react and withdraw from X, even though the economic situation of the social network is far from bright. Among the largest are Apple, which spent nearly $100 million a year on Twitter ads before Musk arrived. according to the American media Bloombergbut also other significant sources of income for the social network such as IBM, Disney, Warner Bros, Paramount, Sony Pictures and Comcast.
But this new controversial statement from Elon Musk is not the only reason for this massive withdrawal of X brands. A little earlier in the week, a report from the American NGO Media Matters had demonstrated that advertisements from these same huge advertisers, such as Apple, IBM or even Xfinity (Comcast), found themselves placed alongside openly anti-Semitic content on the social network: posts advocating Adolf Hitler, Nazism or more white supremacy. Enough to convince these brands to suspend their collaboration.
Advertisements from advertisers like Apple and Xfinity (Capcom) appear alongside tweets advocating Nazism and Adolf Hitler on the social network X.
© / @MediaMatters
A controversy far from dying down
The general director of , without mentioning the name of Elon Musk or his statements.
But the sulphurous boss of Tesla is far from mea-culpa. After his first very controversial response, he continued by asserting that the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an association fighting against anti-Semitism, “unjustly attacks a majority of the West, despite the fact that the majority of ‘West supports Jewish people and Israel.’ “It is because they cannot, according to their own principles, criticize the minority groups which represent the main threat” towards Jewish people, he added, while ADL is one of the NGOs which denounce a notable increase in disinformation and homophobic and racist insults on X since the moderation rules changed with the arrival of Elon Musk.
The latter is in any case already preparing his counterattack. He has announced this Saturday, November 18 on X that he was going to take “thermonuclear” legal action against the NGO Media Matters and “all those who participated in this fraudulent attack against our company”. While Space X’s Starship rocket is due to take off this Saturday for a new test, what appears to be Elon Musk’s new toy, of the 44 spent by the billionaire during his buyout.