Elon Musk has stirred up a storm after expressing his views on large advertisers as “oppressors” of free speech in the wake of several corporations pausing ads on X amid an antisemitism controversy. Musk encouraged users to sign up for the Premium+ version of X, as it does not have ads, and criticized the largest advertisers for oppressing free speech. Major corporations such as Apple, Disney, and IBM pulled their ads from X following a controversial post from Musk, which appeared to endorse an antisemitic message.
Earlier this week, Musk responded to a post that criticized “western Jewish populations” and accused Jewish people of pushing “hatred against whites.” This was met with widespread criticism, with Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz calling for him to step down from the six companies he is the CEO of. In response to the controversy, the nonprofit media watchdog group Media Matters reported finding ads from big brands next to pro-Nazi content. Musk announced that X would file a “thermonuclear” lawsuit against the organization in light of this report.
There has been an effort to calm concerns about the platform, with X CEO Linda Yaccarino emphasizing the platform’s efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination. She stated that there is no place for it anywhere in the world and that it is “ugly and wrong. Full stop.”
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