(KRON) — Apple is pausing all advertising on X, formerly know as Twitter, in the wake of the platform’s owner, Elon Musk, endorsing an antisemitic tweet, according to a report in Axios. Apple pulling its ads follows a similar move from IBM, which announced Thursday that it would also stop advertising on X.
IBM pulled its ads following a report that said its ads were appearing alongside material praising Nazis. There is growing concern among advertisers about their ads appearing alongside pro-Nazi content and hate speech.
Musk, the billionaire owner of X, Tesla, and SpaceX, has further inflamed tensions by endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy tweet on the platform. According to Axios, 164 Jewish rabbis and activists amped up pressure on Apple, Google, Amazon and Disney to stop advertising on X following Musk’s tweet.
That same group is also calling on Google and Apple to remove the social network from their platforms, Axios said.
X CEO Linda Yaccarino responded to criticism with a post saying that “X’s point of view has always been very clear that discrimination by everyone should STOP across the board,” adding “X has also been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination. There’s no place for it anywhere in the word — its ugly and wrong. Full stop.”
The European Union and Lionsgate also confirmed on Friday that they would be pausing advertising on Twitter.
On Friday, the New York Times reported that Disney has also decided to pause its advertising on X.
Musk, who was due to speak at this week’s APEC summit but was removed from the speaker’s list because of a purported “schedule change,” responded to a tweet claiming the Jewish community has been “pushing the same dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.”
“You have said the actual truth,” Musk tweeted in response.
