So, here’s the scoop – Apple, Disney, and IBM have decided to hit the pause button on their ads on X, which used to be known as Twitter. Why, you ask? Well, it all started when Elon Musk, the big boss of X, tweeted his support for an antisemitic post. And that’s when the dominoes started falling. Other big names like IBM and Disney followed suit, announcing that they too would be taking a break from advertising on the platform.
The reason behind this decision? It turns out that Apple’s ads were being shown alongside tweets that praised Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Yikes! And it didn’t stop there. Film studio Lionsgate and other major players in the entertainment industry also decided to join the ad pause party.
Elon Musk’s tweet, in which he enthusiastically agreed with a post accusing Jews of hating white people, didn’t sit well with a lot of folks. In fact, the White House condemned his statements, calling them ‘abhorrent’. And it wasn’t just the White House – a group of over 150 rabbis called for a boycott of X by companies like Apple, Disney, Amazon, and Oracle in response to Musk’s tweets.
Apple, which used to be one of X’s biggest advertisers, had been spending a whopping $100 million a year on the platform. But things started to change after Musk took over. In fact, Apple had already cut back on its advertising on X in December 2022, around the time when Musk acquired the platform. And it seems like other advertisers were also having second thoughts, with Twitter’s business taking a nosedive.
Musk and Apple had their own little tiff back in December 2022 when Apple reduced its advertising. Musk even took to the internet to question whether Apple’s CEO and employees ‘hate free speech in America’. But things seemed to cool down when Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, invited Musk to the company’s headquarters, and they appeared to patch things up.
IBM, another big advertiser on X, also decided to pull the plug on their ads in response to a report that found their ads running alongside hate speech. The company made it clear that they have ‘zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination’ and immediately suspended all advertising on X.
Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X, tried to do some damage control, emphasizing that X is against discrimination. But she didn’t mention Musk’s name or his tweets.
So, that’s the lowdown on why these big players are hitting pause on their ads. It’s a big move, and it’s clear that Musk’s tweets have caused quite a stir. Let’s see how things unfold from here.
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