By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas | Think the old Bird will fly? Well, it does look like Elon Musk's massive Starship indeed will fly, much higher than the experimental rocket flew on its second launch yesterday. Another of Elon's birds, however, may die on the launchpad.
We speak of X, the all-world social media platform once known as Twitter.
A steady stream of negative news reports have it that X is losing advertisers right and left, this because of his wild swing top far right politics - the last one being a dig at Jews.
This from axios.com. [ A growing number of X's biggest advertisers are pulling out, leaving the company's ad business in limbo. The move from several companies and organizations to pause ads on X, formerly Twitter, comes after owner Elon Musk backed an antisemitic conspiracy theory. Civil rights groups have also reported a rise in antisemitism and hate speech on the platform.
Media Matters for America, a left-leaning non-profit, recently published a report identifying multiple companies whose ads on X appeared next to far-right posts.
X's CEO Linda Yaccarino said the company has been "extremely clear" about its "efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination," per a statement Friday.
"There's absolutely no place for it anywhere in the world," Yaccarino added.
Yaccarino said X's "point of view has always been very clear that discrimination by everyone should STOP across the board," per an earlier statement Thursday.
An X executive told Axios on Thursday that the company "did a sweep on the accounts that Media Matters found and they will [no] longer be monetizable" and that the specific posts it highlighted will be labeled "Sensitive Media."
That hasn't stopped some of the site's major advertisers from pulling out.
Companies that have suspended their ads on X:
Apple: Sources told Axios' that the company was pausing its ads on X.
IBM: The company said Thursday in a statement shared with Axios that it "has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination, and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation."
Disney: A source confirmed to Axios on Friday that it would be pausing ads on X.
Comcast/NBCUniversal: Axios confirmed on Friday evening that Comcast is also pausing advertising on X.
Lions Gate Entertainment: A spokesperson for Lions Gate Entertainment confirmed to Axios that it would be pulling all advertising from X.
Warner Bros. Discovery: The company is also pausing its presence on X, per Variety on Friday. ]
Musk, meanwhile, is promising "thermonuclear lawsuits" against these companies.
Disclaimer: We never joined Twitter and really have no interest in looking at X as a possibility. These social media outfits tend to eventually posture themselves as yet some more partisan political hacks. Facebook is doing it, plus it is now selling so-called "clearance badges" to - ahem - essentially prove you're a human and not some robotoid.
It bores us, yes...
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Musk said what he thought. Multiple companies disagree with his thought and do not want their brand to be associated with that thought. Everybody seems to be acting within their rights, so what's up with the lawsuit? The muskrat seems to be acting more and more like Donnie as time goes by.
ReplyDeleteIn this country, anybody can so anybody else. Musk is tackling some pretty big outfits, all of which I'm sure have top notch lawyers...
ReplyDeleteElon was able to avoid public scrutiny all these years and build a rabbid fanboy base around him until recently.
ReplyDeleteNow that we can see his inner monologues, he is just another rich far right conman with an overinflated sense of ego. He almost never delivers his products at the cost or time schedules he promised and just strings along fanboys and investors to keep his stock prices high. Dupes will never acknowledge they've been duped.
Echo that.
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