More companies pause ads on X over Musk endorsing antisemitic post

More advertisers have paused spending on Elon Musk’s X over the weekend as backlash from a social media comment by Musk continues to unfold. Warner Bros. Discovery and Sony are the latest companies to pause their ads following similar moves by IBM, Apple, Lionsgate, and Paramount Global.

Elon Musk is spreading the kind of antisemitism that leads to massacres

X Out Hate

The spending freeze follows Musk’s response to an X user who posted a comment that included an antisemitic conspiracy theory. Musk replied to that post by saying, “You have said the actual truth.”

Musk’s comment not only resulted in a response from major advertisers but also from the White House, which said it was “unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie…at any time, let alone after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” referring to the terrorist attack by Hamas in Israel last month that killed at least 1,200 people.

A group of more than 150 Jewish leaders across the political spectrum released a statement calling on advertisers to pull ads from X, and saying that the post “was implicit support for Nazism.”

“Elon Musk is spreading the kind of antisemitism that leads to massacres,” the statement read. “And advertisers are funding the platform that allows him to spread his ideology to hundreds of millions people.”

This past week, there were hundreds of bogus media stories claiming that I am antisemitic.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

I wish only the best for humanity and a prosperous and exciting future for all.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 19, 2023

Musk, who bought the social media site formerly known as Twitter in October 2022, spoke out on Friday, Nov. 17, against advertisers who were pulling their ads. Musk said X would be filing a lawsuit against Media Matters, a liberal media watchdog group that accused X of placing ads next to posts supporting Hitler and the Nazi party.

Musk called the group’s allegations a “fraudulent attack.”

Musk has also defended his post on X saying that he wants nothing but the best for humanity.

“This past week, there were hundreds of bogus media stories claiming that I am antisemitic,” Musk wrote. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”