IBM Says It's Suspending All Advertising on X

Musk faces backlash after agreeing with antisemitic post on platform
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 17, 2023 6:13 AM CST
IBM Says It's Suspending All Advertising on X
Elon Musk is seen during a talk with Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at Lancaster House in London, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023.   (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool)

IBM has "zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination," the company said Thursday, announcing that it is suspending all advertising on X. The move followed a Media Matters for America report Thursday that advertising from IBM and other large companies had been appearing next to pro-Nazi content on the platform. A day earlier, Musk was slammed for endorsing a post that the American Jewish Committee called the "deadliest antisemitic conspiracy theory in modern US history," the New York Times reports. Under a post that claimed Jewish people are stoking "hatred against whites" and support "flooding" the country with "hordes of minorities," Musk wrote, "This is the actual truth."

Jewish leaders said Musk was promoting the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory cited by mass killers include the Tree of Life synagogue shooter. Musk later criticized the Anti-Defamation League, saying the group "unjustly attacks the majority of the West." He said his criticism "does not extend to all Jewish communities, but it is also not just limited to ADL." On Thursday, Musk responded to another far-right poster, agreeing with her statement that white people are not "allowed to be proud of their race" and calling it "super messed up," the Verge reports.

IBM said it has suspended all advertising while it investigates "this entirely unacceptable situation." A spokesperson said the company was looking into the Media Matters report, not Musk's messages, NBC News reports. The Washington Post reports that in a post "that appeared aimed at controlling the damage," X chief executive Linda Yaccarino said the company's "point of view has always been very clear that discrimination by everyone should STOP across the board." Musk's Thursday appearance at the APEC summit in San Francisco was canceled due to a "schedule change," organizers said. (More Elon Musk stories.)

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