Walmart Joins Exodus of X Advertisers
Walmart became the latest major company Friday to say it will no longer pay for advertisements on the Elon Musk social media platform known as X.
The big-box retailer joined other major brands including Apple, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery to suspend their ads on the platform formerly known as Twitter earlier this month after a report from liberal watchdog group Media Matters said ads had appeared next to antisemitic posts.
Musk later sued Media Matters and told the advertisers to “Go f–k yourself” in an onstage interview at the New York Times’ DealBook conference.
“We aren’t advertising on X as we’ve found other platforms to better reach our customers,” a Walmart spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters. X did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the outlet.
The group of companies to flee, including Apple, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount and Sony, stopped advertising on X effective immediately, citing Musk’s “recent antisemitic tweets.”
Musk has faced intense backlash for promoting and agreeing with a post on X, which glorified an antisemitic conspiracy theory. The White House was among those to condemn the post, calling it “unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie behind the most fatal act of Antisemitism in American history at any time.”
Musk appeared on Wednesday at the DealBook Summit and went into profane detail over his thoughts on the matter. He also apologized for promoting the post, saying he “handed a loaded gun to those who hate me, and arguably to those who are antisemitic. For that I’m quite sorry. That was not my intention.”
Asked about the recent advertising exodus at X, Musk responded that he didn’t care if they left the social media platform.
“If somebody’s going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money,” Musk said. “Go f–k yourself.”
“Is that clear?” the billionaire quipped. “That’s how I feel.”
The “actual truth” tweet came in conjunction with a Media Matters report that found X not adhering to agreed-upon brand safety measures for advertisers’ content. It found the social media platform placing its ads alongside content that “touts Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party.”
Natalie Korach contributed to this report.
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