Major media and tech CEOs are taking a stance against Elon Musk after he endorsed an antisemitic post on X, formerly Twitter, and the platform placed some of their ads next to antisemitic content. The Walt Disney Company, Lionsgate and Warner Bros. Discovery are among companies that have suspended advertising on X after its owner’s latest antic.
Musk faced backlash from industry peers and investors about his comment, where he responded “you have said the actual truth” to a user’s post claiming Jewish communities are “pushing hatred” against white people. Dustin Moskovitz, a Facebook cofounder and the CEO of productivity software maker Asana, called for Musk to resign from all of his companies.
Major advertisers’ pullout could jeopardize X’s already struggling revenue streams. Musk has complained publicly about the company’s declining ad business since he bought it in October 2022. Many industry observers believe this is the main reason Musk in June brought on Linda Yaccarino, the former chief of global ad sales at NBCUniversal, to lead X.
In Musk’s grievances about advertising, he has blamed and filed suits against anti-hate groups such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Center for Countering Digital Hate for discouraging companies from advertising on X. Most recently, he threatened to sue Media Matters for America, a liberal watchdog organization that monitors media companies for issues like misinformation, after it reported last week it found ads from companies like Apple, Oracle, Xfinity and IBM alongside pro-Nazi content. Apple and IBM have halted ad spending on X.
Here is a running list of every major media and tech company that has paused ad spending on X:
- The Walt Disney Company
- Warner Bros. Discovery
- Lionsgate
- Apple
- IBM
- Comcast (the parent company of NBCUniversal, Yaccarino’s former employer)
- Paramount Global
- Sony Pictures
- The Internet and Television Association