IBM will no longer run advertisements on X.com, the former Twitter owned by Elon Musk. The reason? Elon Musk’s tweets and his positions considered too close to the far right and anti-Semitic theories. The latest episode in particular has sparked condemnation and indignation on social media. In a post on the platform, a user wrote that Jews have a “dialectical hatred” towards whites. And Musk said that post told “the factual truth.” Musk has often been accused in recent months of having positions that at times led to anti-Semitism, much more often in the defense of “white pride”. But if Musk seems to cope well with the accusations, X.com suffers a little more.
The tycoon’s belief is that X.com is the platform of free speech. Even if this freedom leads to the publication of discriminatory, conspiracy, or violent posts. For Musk it is an ideological battle. A problem for advertisers. Because companies don’t like to see their image associated with hate speech and online discrimination. Their reputation is at stake, and therefore their business. And if after an advertisement a post appears that ridicules blacks or defends the reasons of white supremacism, it is a problem for the company that paid money to be there.
IBM, Apple and Oracle and the ads among neo-Nazi posts
The nonprofit Media Matters noted that IBM, Apple, Oracle, Comcast and other companies have placed ads alongside pro-Nazi and pro-Hitler content (not posted by Musk, but posted without moderation just as Musk wants) on IBM told the Financial Times that the company has “zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination and we have immediately suspended all advertising on evaluating similar actions. Musk for his part defined on X Media Matters an “evil” organization.
Musk has no intention of changing his line. He said it’s absurd that white people aren’t allowed to “be proud of their race.” The support for white pride came a day after Musk said he agreed with that post. Shared by an account already smacking of anti-Semitism and which supports the thesis on social media that Jewish communities in fact foment “hatred against whites”. “This does not affect all Jewish communities,” Musk later added, in an attempt to clarify his previous post.
Jews against the white West, the anti-Semitic conspiracy thesis
But his position, his comment, comes at the worst possible time. When new episodes of anti-Semitism are being recorded in the United States and Europe. Musk, currently considered the richest person in the world, has come under fire from Jewish advocacy organizations over a rise in anti-Semitic posts on X since he took control of the platform last year. And it is a fact that X.com appears to be a platform where it is possible to support any thesis. Even the most subtle anti-Semitic theses, such as the one that sees Jews hating Western whites above all. Theses that echo those of the last century. And which led to the Shoah.
Musk responded harshly to criticism of X’s handling of anti-Semitic content. But according to American financial newspapers, it is no secret that the company’s advertising business is in trouble. X CEO Linda Yaccarino said most of the platform’s large advertisers have returned after abandoning the site due to moderation changes. But Media Matters has shown that they are spending much less than in the past.