Major Advertisers Pause Support For X, Bringing The Long-Term Sustenance Of The Platform Under Threats

The biggest ad partners of Elon Musk’s X are not happy with the operations of the platform and comments of Elon Musk. Names including Apple, Disney, and NBCUniversal are now pausing their support of the platform.

The halt came after many third-party reports highlighted X’s failure to provide the required brand safety. The political comments of Elon Musk also have made the advertisers annoyed. 

Under this current scenario and if the boycott of the advertisers runs for longer, the survival of this platform will become a problem.

A report from Media Matters made the big advertisers on the platform furious. The report showed how the ad system of X is publishing ads with content that is neo-nazi, racist and anti-semitic. It shows how X’s system to prevent posts on these topics simply does not work.

In addition, the ad revenue share program of the platform encourages decisive practices and posts by monetizing these types of content and giving incentives to the creators.

Musk also made open praises of a well-known antisemitic conspiracy theory last week. Advertisers took that into account, and many people see his comment as an even bigger reason to withdraw support from the platform for the moment.

The Guardian report, published on 18th November 2023, highlighted,

Apple will pause all its advertising on X, formerly Twitter, two days after its owner, Elon Musk, tweeted his enthusiastic agreement with an antisemitic post.

A cascade of other major technology and media companies, from IBM to Disney, made similar announcements on Friday.

Linda Yaccarino, the current CEO of X, was also the former advertising sales chief of NBCUniversal. She tried to come up with some face-saving exercises. She wrote,

X’s point of view has always been very clear that discrimination by everyone should STOP across the board.

However, she stayed away from making a statement on Musk’s political comments last week. Further, big advertisers don’t seem convinced by her statement, either.