Less than 24 hours after Elon Musk endorsed an anti-Semitic post about X as “the real truth” of what Jews were doing, IBM paused its advertising on the social media platform while X CEO Linda Yaccarino and others in the company were hurrying forward. Thursday to contain the consequences.
X employees said Thursday that they had received calls from advertisers asking why Musk was making comments considered anti-Semitic and why his ads appeared next to white nationalist and Nazi content, according to internal messages seen by The New York Times. . IBM cut about $1 million in advertising spending it had committed to the platform during the last three months of the year, according to the messages.
In a note to employees Thursday morning, Ms. Yaccarino said that “X is a platform for everyone” and that “discrimination by everyone should STOP across the board.” She said the company had been clear about her work to fight anti-Semitism and discrimination, and then shared a similar message in X.
In a statement, IBM said it “has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination, and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this totally unacceptable situation.”
X did not respond to a request for comment. financial time previously reported on IBM’s pause in advertising on X.
Musk, who bought Twitter last year and renamed it X, has faced growing criticism for having tolerated and even encouraged anti-Semitic abuse on his social media platform. He has attacked George Soros, the financier who is a frequent target of anti-Semitic abuse, and has threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League, a human rights group that has highlighted the rise of anti-Semitism in X.
On Wednesday, Musk went further when he agreed with a post from an X account that accused Jewish communities of fueling “anti-white hate that they claim they want people to stop using against them.” The Jewish people are now “coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities who support the flooding of their country don’t like them very much,” the story adds.
“You have told the real truth,” Musk said. answered to the position.
Jewish groups have compared the claim Musk endorsed to the “Great Replacement Theory,” the far-right idea that minorities are replacing white European populations.
“It is the deadliest anti-Semitic conspiracy theory in modern American history,” said the American Jewish Committee, a US-based Israel advocacy group. wrote the X of Thursday. “Amplifying it at @X is incredibly dangerous.”
Social media platforms in general have faced increasing scrutiny since Hamas attacked Israel last month and Israel retaliated. Anti-Semitic and Islamophobic hate speech has increased everywhere and has been especially prominent on X, according to the Anti-Defamation League and researchers. On Wednesday night, more than a dozen Jewish creators and celebrities also confronted TikTok executives in a private meeting, urging them to do more to address rising anti-Semitism and harassment on the video service.
In September, Musk met with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, at a Tesla factory in the San Francisco Bay area after facing accusations of anti-Semitism.
“It’s not easy to be slandered. I know you’ve never seen that, right?” Netanyahu asked Musk at one point.
“Me, defamed?” Mr. Musk said, laughing. “Never.”
On X, Yaccarino has previously intervened in situations related to anti-Semitic content on the platform. This month, a sales employee pointed out apparently anti-Semitic posts that the site had not removed, prompting Yaccarino to ask that the posts be reviewed, two people with knowledge of the situation said. The employee who flagged the posts is no longer with the company, the people said. Information He previously reported on Ms. Yaccarino’s actions in those publications.
On Thursday morning, X sales employees asked about Musk’s posts and what they could convey to their customers, according to messages seen by The Times. They also cited an article by Media Matters for America, a left-wing advocacy group, which showed ads for major brands appearing in X alongside posts promoting Nazi and white nationalist perspectives.
“Many big advertisers have been exposed in this article,” one employee wrote.
Another employee wrote that she was concerned because she worked with Apple, a major advertiser mentioned in the Media Matters article, and asked if some of the posts “were manipulated.” An employee responded that the company’s trust and safety team, which has experienced layoffs and resignations, was “actively investigating this.”
mike isaac and Kate Conger contributed with reports.
