The social media company X, previously known as Twitter, has suffered significant financial setbacks as a result of Elon Musk’s approval of an Antisemitic post.
Within a day of Musk’s endorsement of an Antisemitic post on X, IBM halted its advertising on the platform. This led X’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, and other company officials to take immediate action to address the repercussions.
X employees reported receiving inquiries from advertisers regarding Musk’s comments, which were viewed as antisemitic, and their concern about their ads being displayed alongside white nationalist and Nazi content. According to internal messages seen by The New York Times, IBM terminated approximately $1 million in committed advertising spending on the platform for the remaining three months of the year.
In response, IBM stated 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.”
In a message to employees, Yaccarino emphasized X’s commitment to being a platform for everyone and condemned discrimination. She reiterated the company’s efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination.
Musk, who acquired Twitter last year and rebranded it as X, has been facing mounting criticism for tolerating and even encouraging antisemitic abuse on the platform.
On Wednesday, Musk took it a step further by agreeing with a post from an X account that accused Jewish communities of promoting “hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.”
The account added that Jewish people are now “coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much.” Musk replied to the post, saying, “You have said the actual truth.”
Jewish groups have likened the statement endorsed by Musk to the “Great Replacement Theory,” a far-right concept suggesting that minorities are replacing white European populations.
“It is the deadliest antisemitic conspiracy theory in modern U.S. history. To amplify it on @X is incredibly dangerous,” the American Jewish Committee, a U.S.-based Israel advocacy group wrote on X on Thursday
Social media platforms have come under increasing scrutiny following the attack by Hamas on Israel on Oct. 7 and subsequent retaliatory actions. Antisemitic and Islamophobic hate speech has surged across these sites, particularly on X, as noted by the Anti-Defamation League.
In September, Musk met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a Tesla factory in the San Francisco Bay Area, following accusations of antisemitism.
“It’s not an easy thing to be maligned — I know you’ve never seen that, right?” Netanyahu asked Musk at one point.
“Me, maligned?” Musk said, laughing. “Never.”
