Disney and others avoid X due to its rising anti-Semitism backlash

Advertisers are steering clear of X social media out of concern that their ads might be displayed next to pro-Nazi content and hate speech on the platform as a whole.

Due to worries that their advertisements may appear alongside pro-Nazi material and hate speech on the platform overall, advertisers are avoiding X social media, whose billionaire owner Elon Musk stoked tensions by supporting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories in his own tweets.

This week, IBM, NBCUniversal, and Comcast, the parent company of X, announced that they had ceased running advertisements on the platform following reports that their advertisements were running alongside content that glorified Nazis. This is a new setback for X, which depends heavily on big brands and their advertising dollars.

In a study released on Thursday, the liberal advocacy group Media Matters said that advertisements for Apple and Oracle were also displayed on X alongside anti-Semitic content. On Friday, it said that alongside white nationalist hashtags, it also discovered advertisements from NBCUniversal, NBA Mexico, Amazon, and other companies. Comcast and NBCUniversal spokespeople verified on Saturday that the firms had "paused" their X advertising, but they did not offer any other information behind the choice.

Separately on Friday, the executive branch of the European Union announced that it was stopping advertising on X and other social media platforms, partly due to an increase in hate speech. Disney, Lionsgate, and Paramount Global also said later in the day that they were stopping or suspending their X advertisements.