IBM has stopped promoting on social media platform X after a report stated its ads have been showing along subject matter praising Adolf Hitler and Nazis — a recent setback because the website online previously referred to as Twitter tries to win again giant manufacturers and their advert greenbacks.
The U.S. tech corporate made the verdict after a report Thursday through the liberal advocacy crew Media Matters stated ads from IBM, Apple, Oracle, NBCUniversal’s Bravo community and Comcast have been positioned next to antisemitic subject matter on X.
“IBM has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation,” the company said in a terse statement.
Billionaire owner Elon Musk sparked outcry this week with his own tweets responding to a user who accused Jews of hating white people and professing indifference to antisemitism. “You have said the actual truth,” Musk tweeted in a answer Wednesday.
Musk has faced accusations of tolerating antisemitic messages on the platform since purchasing it last year, and the content on X has gained increased scrutiny since the war between Israel and Hamas began.
“X’s point of view has always been very clear that discrimination by everyone should STOP across the board — I think that’s something we can and should all agree on,” CEO Linda Yaccarino said in a tweet.
She was hired by Musk to rebuild ties with advertisers who fled after he took over, concerned that his easing of content restrictions was allowing hateful and toxic speech to flourish and that would harm their brands.
“When it comes to this platform — X has also been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination. There’s no place for it anywhere in the world — it’s ugly and wrong. Full stop,” Yaccarino stated.
The accounts that Media Matters discovered posting antisemitic subject matter will not be monetizable and that the precise posts might be categorised “delicate media,” according to a statement from X on Friday.
The Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish civil-rights organization, has previously accused Musk of allowing antisemitism and hate speech to spread on the platform and amplifying the messages of neo-Nazis and white supremacists who want to ban the group.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a September meeting with Musk, instructed the Tesla CEO that he hopes he can have the opportunity to roll again antisemitism and different kinds of hatred inside the limits of the First Amendment.