A torrent of prominent brands halted their advertising on X last Friday, dealing a massive reputational blow to Elon Musk’s social media company after his public embrace of an antisemitic conspiracy theory favored by White supremacists.

The high-profile advertiser revolt includes some of the world’s largest media companies, such as Disney, Paramount, NBCUniversal, Comcast, Lionsgate and Warner Bros. Discovery.

X also reportedly lost Apple, according to multiple news outlets.

The dizzying pace and scope of the withdrawals from X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, comes amid a widening backlash against Musk for his increasingly vocal endorsement of extremist beliefs.

It casts fresh doubts on the future of a business that Musk and X CEO Linda Yaccarino had vowed would become profitable once more as early as next year.

The companies’ advertising pauses follow a similar move by IBM last Thursday.

Ads for IBM and other major brands were found appearing alongside pro-Nazi content on the platform, according to a report by progressive media watchdog group Media Matters. In a statement, IBM explicitly called out what it described as an “entirely unacceptable situation.”

“IBM has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation,” an IBM spokesperson said.

In a blog post responding to Friday’s brand exodus, X accused Media Matters of aggressively searching for pro-Nazi content in a way that “misrepresented the real user experience” and could “mislead advertisers.” The company noted that the pro-Nazi posts cited in the report had little engagement; one of the posts mentioned has since had its visibility reduced under X’s “Freedom of Speech, not Reach” policy.

In a post on X early Saturday morning, Musk threatened a lawsuit against Media Matters. The group’s president responded in a statement, saying, “If he does sue us, we will win.”

“Far from the free speech advocate he claims to be, Musk is a bully who threatens meritless lawsuits in an attempt to silence reporting that he even confirmed is accurate,” Media Matters President Angelo Carusone said in the statement. “Musk admitted the ads at issue ran alongside the pro-Nazi content we identified.”

A spokesperson for X said the pro-Nazi accounts identified in Thursday’s Media Matters report would no longer be eligible for monetization, meaning ads would no longer be run on those pages.(SD-Agencies)

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【撤离】chèlí withdrawal the act or process of taking something away so that it is no longer available

【退出】tuìchū exodus leaving in large numbers

因为公开支持白人至上主义者的反犹阴谋论，上周五一大批知名品牌停止了在埃隆•马斯克的社交媒体X上投放广告，对该平台的声誉造成巨大打击。

高调出走的广告主包括全球最大的几家媒体公司，如迪士尼、派拉蒙、NBC环球、康卡斯特、狮门影业和华纳兄弟探索频道。

据多家新闻机构报道，苹果公司也终止了和X的合作。

马斯克张扬的极端主义言论引起广泛的反弹，前身为推特的X平台也遭遇了广告商快速大范围的抛弃。

马斯克和X公司首席执行官琳达•雅卡里诺曾信誓旦旦地表示，该公司最快明年将实现盈利，但这次风波让人们对该公司的未来产生了疑虑。

上述公司暂停广告投放之前，IBM上周四也采取了类似举措。

据进步媒体监督组织Media Matters的一份报告称，IBM和其他主流品牌的广告与亲纳粹内容一起出现在该平台上。在一份声明中，IBM 明确谴责了这种“完全不可接受的情况”。

IBM 发言人说：“IBM 对仇恨言论和歧视零容忍，对此我们展开调查，并已即刻暂停了X上的所有广告。”

在一篇回应周五品牌出走的博文中，X指责Media Matters以一种 “歪曲真实用户体验”的方式搜索亲纳粹内容，可能“误导广告商”。X指出，报告中提到的亲纳粹帖子参与度很低；根据X的“言论表达自由，非可见自由”政策，其中一个帖子的可见度已经降低。

上周六清晨，马斯克在X上发表文章，威胁要起诉Media Matters。该组织主席在一份声明中回应说：“如果他起诉我们，我们一定会赢。”

Media Matters总裁安杰洛•卡鲁松在声明中说：“马斯克远非他标榜的言论自由倡导者，他威胁提起无理诉讼，企图压制他自己也认为是准确的报道。马斯克承认，有争议的广告与我们发现的亲纳粹内容同时出现。”X发言人表示，周四Media Matters报告中提到的亲纳粹账户不再符合广告提成规定，这些页面上将不再出现广告。

(Translated by Debra)