IBM pulls X ads as Elon Musk endorses white pride
IBM has pulled its advertising presence from The non-profit Media Matters drew attention to these statements and noted that IBM, Apple, Comcast and other companies all had ads placed next to pro-Nazi and pro-Hitler content (not posted by Musk) on X. IBM say it 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 completely unacceptable situation.”
Today on the platform, Musk called it “super messed up” that white people aren’t, in the words of a far-right tweet, “allowed to be proud of their race.” The support for white pride came a day after Musk agreed to an anti-Semitic message claiming that Jewish communities had stoked “hatred against white people.” Musk told another user that “you told the real truth” after the person wrote that they were “deeply disinterested in talking any bullshit now about Western Jewish populations” in the face of “hordes of minorities who support the flooding of their country. 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 then focused on the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a nonprofit focused on combating anti-Semitism, saying the group “unfairly attacks the majority of the West” (a category that Musk didn’t define) because he can’t “criticize minority groups who are their main threat.” Musk previously threatened to sue the ADL due to the nonprofit’s criticism of lax moderation practices on X that allowed anti-Semitism to spread.
He never filed a lawsuit, but he clearly hasn’t let go of his grudge — and if anything, he’s expanded its reach. When another X user pushed Musk to clarify that his complaint was about the ADL and not Jewish communities in general, Musk responded that it “does not extend to all Jewish communities, but it does not limited to ADL either.” He said he opposed the ADL and “any other group that advocates de facto anti-white racism, anti-Asian racism, or racism of any kind.”
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 spend much less than before. Yaccarino replied later Thursday, writing that X had been “extremely clear about our efforts to combat anti-Semitism and discrimination.”
