NEWS

Advertisers drop X as Musk backs anti-Semitic post

Elon Musks says in a post that the Jewish plan to weaken white majorites is true.

DT

An exodus of big-name advertisers appeared under way at X, formerly Twitter, on Friday in the wake of Elon Musk endorsing an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.

Nonprofit group Media Matters added Apple, Disney, Comcast, Lionsgate Entertainment, and Paramount Global to its list of companies pausing advertising on X.

"Lionsgate has suspended advertising on X because of Elon Musk's recent antisemitic tweets," a spokesperson for the motion picture production and distribution company told Agence France-Presse.

IBM on Thursday said it stopped advertising on X due to a report its ads were shown next to pro-Nazi posts at X.

Apple and Disney did not reply to requests for comment.

"Major blue-chip companies are announcing they will suspend all advertising," the group said on a web page featuring a running list.

White House rebuke

The White House on Friday condemned Musk, the world's richest person, for "abhorrent promotion" of anti-Semitism.

The White House was reacting to a post by Musk in which the controversial Tesla and SpaceX tycoon replied to an anti-Semitic post on X with the words: "You have said the actual truth."

The original post has been perceived by the White House and the US media as a reference to a longtime conspiracy theory among White supremacists that Jews have a secret plan to bring in illegal immigrants to weaken white majorities.

Most notoriously, the idea was promoted by the man who carried out a mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, killing 11 people.

Referring to Musk's post, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said it was "unacceptable" to repeat such a "hideous lie."

WITH AFP