A torrent of prominent brands halted their advertising on X last Friday, dealing a massive reputational blow to Elon Musk’s social media company after his public embrace of an antisemitic conspiracy theory favored by White supremacists. The high-profile advertiser revolt includes some of the world’s largest media companies, such as Disney, Paramount, NBCUniversal, Comcast, Lionsgate and Warner Bros. Discovery. X also reportedly lost Apple, according to multiple news outlets. The dizzying pace and scope of the withdrawals from X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, comes amid a widening backlash against Musk for his increasingly vocal endorsement of extremist beliefs. It casts fresh doubts on the future of a business that Musk and X CEO Linda Yaccarino had vowed would become profitable once more as early as next year. The companies’ advertising pauses follow a similar move by IBM last Thursday. Ads for IBM and other major brands were found appearing alongside pro-Nazi content on the platform, according to a report by progressive media watchdog group Media Matters. In a statement, IBM explicitly called out what it described as an “entirely unacceptable situation.” “IBM has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation,” an IBM spokesperson said. In a blog post responding to Friday’s brand exodus, X accused Media Matters of aggressively searching for pro-Nazi content in a way that “misrepresented the real user experience” and could “mislead advertisers.” The company noted that the pro-Nazi posts cited in the report had little engagement; one of the posts mentioned has since had its visibility reduced under X’s “Freedom of Speech, not Reach” policy. In a post on X early Saturday morning, Musk threatened a lawsuit against Media Matters. The group’s president responded in a statement, saying, “If he does sue us, we will win.” “Far from the free speech advocate he claims to be, Musk is a bully who threatens meritless lawsuits in an attempt to silence reporting that he even confirmed is accurate,” Media Matters President Angelo Carusone said in the statement. “Musk admitted the ads at issue ran alongside the pro-Nazi content we identified.” A spokesperson for X said the pro-Nazi accounts identified in Thursday’s Media Matters report would no longer be eligible for monetization, meaning ads would no longer be run on those pages.(SD-Agencies) Words to Learn 相關詞匯 【撤離】chèlí withdrawal the act or process of taking something away so that it is no longer available 【退出】tuìchū exodus leaving in large numbers 因為公開支持白人至上主義者的反猶陰謀論，上周五一大批知名品牌停止了在埃隆?馬斯克的社交媒體X上投放廣告，對該平臺的聲譽造成巨大打擊。 高調出走的廣告主包括全球最大的幾家媒體公司，如迪士尼、派拉蒙、NBC環球、康卡斯特、獅門影業和華納兄弟探索頻道。 據多家新聞機構報道，蘋果公司也終止了和X的合作。 馬斯克張揚的極端主義言論引起廣泛的反彈，前身為推特的X平臺也遭遇了廣告商快速大范圍的拋棄。 馬斯克和X公司首席執行官琳達?雅卡里諾曾信誓旦旦地表示，該公司最快明年將實現盈利，但這次風波讓人們對該公司的未來產生了疑慮。 上述公司暫停廣告投放之前，IBM上周四也采取了類似舉措。 據進步媒體監督組織Media Matters的一份報告稱，IBM和其他主流品牌的廣告與親納粹內容一起出現在該平臺上。在一份聲明中，IBM 明確譴責了這種“完全不可接受的情況”。 IBM 發言人說：“IBM 對仇恨言論和歧視零容忍，對此我們展開調查，并已即刻暫停了X上的所有廣告。” 在一篇回應周五品牌出走的博文中，X指責Media Matters以一種 “歪曲真實用戶體驗”的方式搜索親納粹內容，可能“誤導廣告商”。X指出，報告中提到的親納粹帖子參與度很低；根據X的“言論表達自由，非可見自由”政策，其中一個帖子的可見度已經降低。 上周六清晨，馬斯克在X上發表文章，威脅要起訴Media Matters。該組織主席在一份聲明中回應說：“如果他起訴我們，我們一定會贏。” Media Matters總裁安杰洛?卡魯松在聲明中說：“馬斯克遠非他標榜的言論自由倡導者，他威脅提起無理訴訟，企圖壓制他自己也認為是準確的報道。馬斯克承認，有爭議的廣告與我們發現的親納粹內容同時出現。”X發言人表示，周四Media Matters報告中提到的親納粹賬戶不再符合廣告提成規定，這些頁面上將不再出現廣告。 (Translated by Debra) | 