In the wake of Elon Musk’s recent endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory on X, prominent players in the entertainment industry are distancing themselves from the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Leon Neal/.In the wake of Elon Musk’s recent endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory on X, prominent players in the entertainment industry are distancing themselves from the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Major film studios and music labels, including Paramount, Sony Pictures, Warner Music Group, Sony Music, Lionsgate, Marvel Entertainment, Universal and Warner Bros., Star Wars, Disney and Emeryville animation studio Pixar have not only suspended advertising but have ceased all activity on the platform since Musk’s controversial post on Nov. 17.
The absence of social media posts from these entertainment giants, which were once prolific contributors to the platform Musk acquired for a staggering $44 billion a year ago, is conspicuous. Instead, many have migrated to Threads, a text-based social media service within Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta empire.
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The brands have not publicly commented about their decision to pull back from X.
“Every day, more brands are waking up to the reality that Twitter is dead and X is a cesspool,” Casey Newton, a columnist for Platformer and former technology reporter for the Chronicle, told CNN, which first reported on the desertion, noting a broader trend. “The global town square is now dispersed across many different platforms, and increasingly the most relevant conversations are taking place elsewhere.”
Major advertisers such as Apple, Comcast, Expedia, Airbnb, Coca-Cola, Microsoft and Uber have simultaneously suspended advertising on the platform following a report from the nonprofit group Media Matters that asserted that their ads appeared alongside pro-Nazi content and hate speech.
Major advertisers such as Apple, Comcast, Expedia, Airbnb, Coca-Cola, Microsoft and Uber have suspended advertising on Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) following a report from the nonprofit group Media Matters that asserted that their ads appeared alongside pro-Nazi content and hate speech.
Leon Neal/.Musk’s endorsement of the antisemitic conspiracy theory also drew criticism from the White House, which stated that his message “runs against our core values as Americans.”
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In response to the controversy, X filed a lawsuit against Media Matters for America, alleging that the nonprofit manufactured its report to “drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp.” Media Matters dismissed the lawsuit as “frivolous.”
In an attempt to mitigate potential financial losses for X, Musk made a surprise visit to Israel on Monday, Nov. 27, meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and expressing the need to “do everything possible to stop the hate.”
However, any goodwill generated from this visit proved short-lived. By the following day, Musk posted a meme supporting the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory, infamous for prompting a man to fire a rifle inside a Washington, D.C., restaurant in 2016. The post garnered more than 15 million views before Musk deleted it less than an hour after it was published.
Reach Aidin Vaziri: [email protected]
