As Elon Musk Endorses Bigoted Nonsense, Advertisers Find Their Ads On Nazi Content

At this point you need to assume that organizations still advertising on exTwitter know that they're supporting a new fascist movement... and are okay with it. Yes, many advertisers on exTwitter have pulled the plug on advertising on the site. And even the ones that Linda Yaccarino has been able to coax back appear to be spending a fraction of what they spent before.

And, yes, since Yaccarino (who was brought in because of her supposedly good relationship with advertisers) keeps telling brands that they're safe on the platform, and that even if bad shit is there their ads will be kept away from it.

But the problem is not the advertising tools. It's the guy who owns the site. And Yaccarino should know this, because the way she ended up in this job was that she interviewed Musk on stage back in April in a pitch to advertisers, and it was revealed that in email discussions beforehand over what she should ask him about, advertisers made it abundantly clear to her that the problem was Elon Musk himself.

This week, he's demonstrated that again by wholeheartedly embracing an antisemitic claim that Jews are somehow anti-white" and are pushing" a hatred against whites" (a version of the nonsense replacement theory" concept that is popular among white supremacists).

And now Media Matters has found that some of those top advertisers" that Yaccarino promised wouldn't have their ads show up next to neo-nazis... are... (you know where this is going...) having their ads show up next to neo-nazis.

But that certainly isn't the case for at least five major brands: We recently found ads for Apple, Bravo, Oracle, Xfinity, andIBM next to posts that tout Hitler and his Nazi Party on X. Here they are:

And, yes, sometimes people claim that merely garden variety bigotry is neo-nazi" content, but the tweets above are flat out neo-nazi, Hitler-praising content. There's not even an attempt at subtle bigotry. Why bother, when Elon is willing to endorse the blatant stuff?

In response to this report, IBM (who was one of the largest remaining advertisers) has said it is immediately pulling its ads from the platform.

And, yes, it's impossible to promise that no bad content will appear next to ads. That's a promise no one can make (and Yaccarino never should have made). But when you have a company that has an owner/boss who not only actively invited back onto the platform multiple known neo-nazis, and repeatedly seems to endorse their messages (some coded, some not even remotely coded), is it any wonder that the site is flooded with neo-nazi content, making it that much more likely that your ads will show up next to such content?

As for how management has responded? Elon called Media Matters an evil organization" for... pointing out literal factual information.

Yaccarino, as is her standard practice, put out a bland meaningless corporate-speak statement about how the company is combating antisemitism and believes there's no place for it." Except, Linda, there is. And it comes from your boss. And everyone knows it. You saying otherwise doesn't change that. Just about every reply to Yaccarino's tweet, even from the blue checks, is some variation of have you told Elon?"

Honestly, at this point, you have to think that companies still advertising on the platform are willing to say they, too, endorse such content.