The world’s biggest and most respected company just pulled its advertising from the social media platform owned by the world’s richest person, over his antisemitic post that reportedly has caused the stock of his electric vehicle manufacturer – the world’s largest – to “tumble.”
“The move follows Musk’s endorsement of antisemitic conspiracy theories as well as Apple ads reportedly being placed alongside far-right content. Apple has been a major advertiser on the social media site and its pause follows a similar move by IBM,” Axios reported Friday in an exclusive, citing sources. “Musk faced backlash for endorsing an antisemitic post Wednesday, as 164 Jewish rabbis and activists upped their call to Apple, Google, Amazon and Disney to stop advertising on X, and for Apple and Google to remove it from their platforms.”
“You have said the actual truth,” Musk had said on X on Wednesday, in response to a user who accused “Jewish communties” [sic] of “pushing … hatred against whites.”
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Calling it “the multibillionaire’s most explicit public statement yet endorsing anti-Jewish views,” CNN explained the claim Musk deemed “the actual truth” is an “antisemitic conspiracy theory popular among White supremacists.”
“The conspiracy theory,” Media Matters reported on Wednesday, “that Jewish populations are pushing ‘hatred against whites’ and supporting ‘hordes of minorities’ coming into the country, is the same one that motivated the 2018 Tree of Life shooter in Pittsburgh, as noted by The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg. Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and other figures linked to white nationalism are cheering on Musk.”
Media Matters’ president and CEO, Angelo Carusone, said Apple’s decision to pause its advertising on X is “very significant for 3 reasons.”
” X needs the App Store. It’s very hard/nearly impossible for Apple to fairly enforce App Store rules when they’re one of biggest advertisers. Now the conflict is gone,” Carusone noted.
“Apple was a very big spender (one of top advertisers) and even more relevant was one of few companies that increased spend over the past year,” he said, adding: “Twitter would often point to Apple’s presence as evidence that the platform was brand safe. It’s going to a lot harder for them to slow the advertiser losses without Apple’s presence to point to.”
Axios on Thursday reported that shares in Musk’s Tesla, the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer, tumbled, after Musk backed the antisemitic claim: “Tesla stock sank on Thursday, losing tens of billions of dollars in market value.”
Meanwhile, as The Wrap reported, there “have many ripple effects” from Musk’s support for antisemitism.
“Musk was replaced with Sen. John Kerry as a speaker at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit’s Thursday sessions, centered on artificial intelligence. APEC cited a ‘schedule change.'”
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“Elsewhere, the influential investment advisor Ross Gerber determined Musk’s behavior was ultimately, ‘sadly’ a win for Tesla competitor Rivian.”
“I will be replacing my Tesla Model Y for a Rivian next year, and I’m sure the rest of L.A. will as well,” Gerber announced on X.
Speaking on CNBC on Thursday, Gerber said Musk is “destroying” Tesla’s brand.
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Image by The Royal Society via Wikimedia and a CC license