Apple Joins IBM in Pause on Advertising at Twitter/X

Ina Fried, reporting for Axios:

Apple is pausing all advertising on X, the Elon Musk-owned social network, sources tell Axios. The move follows Musk’s endorsement of antisemitic conspiracy theories as well as Apple ads reportedly being placed alongside far-right content. Apple has been a major advertiser on the social media site and its pause follows a similar move by IBM.

Musk faced backlash for endorsing an antisemitic post Wednesday, as 164 Jewish rabbis and activists upped their call to Apple, Google, Amazon and Disney to stop advertising on X, and for Apple and Google to remove it from their platforms.

The left-leaning nonprofit Media Matters for America published a report Thursday that highlighted Apple, IBM, Amazon and Oracle as among those whose ads were shown next to far-right posts.

It’s fair, in some sense, to describe Media Matters for America as “left-leaning”, but they have a decades-long reputation for accuracy. They don’t publish hit pieces that are later proven to have been manipulated. There’s no reason to doubt their report or the screenshots it contained — especially if, like me, you still do check in on Twitter. This is what it’s like over there now.

Update: Disney and Warner Bros Discovery have suspended advertising on Twitter/X too.

★ Friday, 17 November 2023