IBM pulls X ads as Elon Musk endorses white pride

IBM has pulled its advertising presence from X, formerly Twitter, as Elon Musk continues to endorse far-right talking points, coinciding with posts this week that promoted anti-Semitism and boosted support for white pride. The non-profit organization Media Matters drew attention to these statements and noted that IBM, Apple, Comcast and other companies had ads placed next to pro-Nazi and pro-Hitler content (not posted by Musk) on X. IBM said to Financial times and confirmed to The edge that “IBM has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this totally unacceptable situation.”

Today on the platform, Musk called it “super messy” that white people are not allowed, in the words of a far-right poster’s tweet, “to be proud of their race.” The support for white pride came a day after Musk accepted an anti-Semitic post that claimed Jewish communities had stoked “anti-white hate.” Musk told another user that “You’ve told the real truth” after the person wrote that they are “deeply uninterested in giving a shit now about Western Jewish populations” who face “hordes of minorities supporting the flood of his country”. The Atlantic wrote that Musk’s tweets echoed the “deadliest anti-Semitic conspiracy theory in recent American history” by pushing the idea that there is a “unified Jewish agenda.”

Musk later targeted the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a nonprofit organization focused on fighting anti-Semitism, and said the group “unfairly attacks the majority of the West” (a category Musk did not define). because it cannot “criticize the minority groups that are its main threat.” musk previously threatened to sue the ADL due to the nonprofit’s criticism of lax moderation practices at X that allowed anti-Semitism to spread.

He never filed a lawsuit, but he clearly hasn’t abandoned the grudge and, if anything, it has expanded its reach. When another He posted that he opposed the ADL and “any other group that pushes de facto anti-white racism or anti-Asian racism or any type of racism.”

Musk has responded aggressively to criticism over his X’s handling of anti-Semitic content as the company’s advertising business struggles. Linda Yaccarino, CEO of spending much less than they used to spend. Yaccarino answered Later on Thursday, he wrote that X has been “extremely clear about our efforts to combat anti-Semitism and discrimination.”