NBCUniversal, Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, Lionsgate, Paramount, and Apple are all suspending ads from X (formerly Twitter) after owner Elon Musk made antisemitic comments on the platform.
Reps for NBCUniversal, Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, Paramount Global, and Lionsgate all confirmed to IndieWire the companies have suspended ads, but none have issued a statement specifically condemning Musk’s remarks. Sony Pictures is also not currently advertising on X, an individual with knowledge told IndieWire. Disney’s film “Wish” opens in theaters on November 22. Lionsgate this weekend is releasing the new “Hunger Games” prequel movie “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.” It’s unclear how much advertising or how many ad dollars are being suspended.
The companies’ moves follow similar decisions by tech companies like Apple and IBM to suspend ads on X, as Axios first reported. Media Matters in a report revealed that posts from Apple, IBM, Oracle, Bravo (NBCUniversal), and Comcast were all shown next to posts that promoted far-right content.
Musk back in March singled out Disney and Apple as two of Twitter’s biggest advertisers.
IBM said in a statement to Axios on Thursday 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.”
Earlier this week, Musk was criticized after he replied to an antisemitic post — a response to an ad from the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism — and wrote, “You have said the actual truth,” and then criticized the Anti-Defamation League.
“The ADL unjustly attacks the majority of the West, despite the majority of the West supporting the Jewish people and Israel. This is because they cannot, by their own tenets, criticize the minority groups who are their primary threat. It is not right and needs to stop,” Musk wrote.
X CEO Linda Yaccarino, who previously was the chairman of global advertising & partnerships for NBCUniversal, said in a tweeted statement Thursday, “X’s point of view has always been very clear that discrimination by everyone should STOP across the board — I think that’s something we can and should all agree on. When it comes to this platform — X has also been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination. There’s no place for it anywhere in the world — it’s ugly and wrong. Full stop.”
Musk has drastically reduced staff at X, earlier in the year cutting jobs from 7,500 to 2,000, with some criticizing the job cuts as responsible for the platform’s struggle in maintaining other hateful speech on the platform, and some in Hollywood have already ditched the platform for other emerging social media services like Meta’s Threads or Bluesky from former Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.
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