Posted in: Opinion, streaming, TV, TV | Tagged: apple, disney, elon musk, ibm, opinion, twitter, x

White House Calls Out Elon Musk; Disney, WBD & More Freeze Twitter Ads

Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Lionsgate, Apple & more have frozen ads on Twitter/X; The White House condemns Elon Musk for promoting hate.

So what do Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Lionsgate, IBM, and Apple have in common? It looks like they're not thrilled with Twitter/X owner Elon Musk supporting antisemitic hate on his social media service. And they've decided to exercise their "freedom of speech" by pulling as dollars from the once-somewhat- okay streaming service. In a screencap below, we have an example of another low-grade hatemonger spewing nonsense about Jewish communities "pushing the same kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them." Musk's response? "You have said the actual truth."

Later in the thread, the dude who throws around the phrase "freedom of speech" as if he has any clue what that means took advantage of the situation to take a shot at the Anti-Defamation League: "The ADL unjustly attacks the majority of the West, despite the majority of the West supporting the Jewish people and Israel. This is because they cannot, by their own tenets, criticize the minority groups who are their primary threat."

Adding to the problems for advertisers was a Media Matters for America report that flagged five major companies that had their ads running next to posts promoting antisemitism (including Hitler quotes and Holocaust denial) and other forms of hate – including IBM, Apple, NBCUniversal's Bravo, Oracle & Comcast's Xfinity. To absolutely no surprise whatsoever, Twitter/X CEO Linda Yaccarino hit the social media service to let its detractors know that the company has made it "extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination" and that "there's absolutely no place for it anywhere in the world." Except for the office of the owner of Twitter/X, apparently – based on what Musk himself posted. In an updated report on Friday, Media Matters also added Amazon, NBA Mexico, NBCUniversal Catalyst, Action Network & Club for Growth to the list of companies or organizations whose ads were found next to hate-filled hashtags and messaging.

Earlier today, The White House weighed in on the matter, with spokesperson Andrew Bates adding: "It is unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie behind the most fatal act of antisemitism in American history at any time, let alone one month after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust… We condemn this abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms, which runs against our core values as Americans. We all have a responsibility to bring people together against hate and an obligation to speak out against anyone who attacks the dignity of their fellow Americans and compromises the safety of our communities."

After announcing that it would also be freezing its advertising, the European Commission spokesperson Johannes Bahrke had this to say during a Friday press briefing: "We have seen an alarming increase in disinformation and hate speech on several social media platforms in recent weeks, and X is certainly quite effective of that. We have therefore advised services to refrain from advertising at this stage on concerned social media platforms, where we have concerns that such content appears in an inappropriate context and thus affects the effectiveness of our communication and our messages." Bahrke added, "This has nothing to do with our presence on X per se. This is really about advertisements, campaigns, and ad spending. And for these campaigns, we continuously assess and evaluate the media environment in view of our communication objectives."

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!