Apple has joined a long list of companies halting advertising on X following outrage over Elon Musk's recent antisemitic post. Earlier, IBM, Walt Disney Co, Warner Bros Discovery Inc, Paramount Global, NBC Universal's Bravo network and Comcast, Sony Pictures and Lionsgate announced that they will pause ads on the social media platform.
Musk sparked outrage on Wednesday agreed to a tweet accusing Jews of "dialectical hatred" towards White people, claiming it was "the actual truth". Media Matters, a liberal watchdog, claimed that ads by Apple, IBM, Comcast and Oracle ran alongside hate speech on X.
Musk clapped back at the watchdog, referring to Media Matters as an "evil organisation".
Following this, X CEO Linda Yaccarino wrote, "X’s point of view has always been very clear that discrimination by everyone should STOP across the board.”
Following this, a group of over 150 rabbis urged Apple and several other companies including Disney, Amazon and Oracle to halt ads on X.
This is not the first time that Elon Musk has sparked strong reaction from the Cupertino giant. Apple, which used to spend $100 million annually on Twitter advertisement, had said it has "mostly stopped" advertising on the platform after Musk's takeover of the company in November last year.
However, the worsening relations between the two tech giants were patched up following a meeting between Musk and Apple CEO Tim Cook in December last year. It seems now that things are headed back to were it was about 12 months ago.
The White House has also condemned Musk for promoting antisemitism and racism. "We all have a responsibility to bring people together against hate, and an obligation to speak out against anyone who attacks the dignity of their fellow Americans and compromises the safety of our communities," said White House spokesperson Andrew Bates.