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Elon Musk’s most recent endorsement of a far-right conspiracy theory may have caused the biggest blow to the social media company yet.
Apple announced on Friday that it is suspending ads on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, according to a new report from Axios.
What does this mean for X?
This is a big deal and a bad sign for X. Apple had passed on other boycotts or joining with other advertisers in pausing ad campaigns throughout Musk’s first year running X. Apple spent approximately $100 million in advertising on the platform last year, according to a Bloomberg report from last November.
Apple’s decision to pause ads on the platform comes just days after Musk endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory on X, which claims that Jewish groups are trying to replace white people with minority immigrant populations.
Musk’s posts backing these bigoted claims also coincided with a new Media Matters for America report that found ads from multiple big corporations running alongside pro-Hitler and pro-Nazi content. Ads from tech companies like Apple and IBM were among the brands appearing on these posts.
On Thursday, IBM became the first of this group of advertisers to announce its suspension of ads on X. Apple, as well as Lionsgate, followed suit on Friday. It remains to be seen if other X advertisers will follow these tech companies’ footsteps.
The EU also said it was pulling ads on Friday, although its reasoning was based on Israel-Hamas disinformation that’s been running rampant on the platform.
X has struggled with ad sales since Musk’s takeover. Half of the platform’s largest advertisers paused ad campaigns shortly after Musk’s acquisition last year. A report from June found that X’s ad sales were down 60 percent compared to the previous year.
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