IBM has urgently suspended the publication of promotional materials on the X platform. The company's advertisements appeared next to content promoting violence and hate speech. Following IBM, other giants also followed, including Disney, Apple, and Paramount Global.
Free access to this article is provided to you by MU Group.
According to an analysis conducted by the research firm MediaRadar from January 2022 to October 2023, out of 261 companies that invested over a million dollars in advertising on the X/Twitter platform, as many as 86 percent decided to limit their spending on this type of promotion.
This is related to further allegations of promoting hate speech by Elon Musk and X. Recently, the billionaire, among other things, expressed support for anti-Semitic remarks made by one of the platform's users.
"IBM has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination. We immediately suspended all ads on X until this completely unacceptable situation is investigated" - we read in IBM's statement.
Following IBM, other giants such as Disney, Paramount, Comcast, Lionsgate, NBCUniversal, AT&T, Coca-Cola, General Motors, and the European Union also reduced their advertising spending on X from 70 to 97% or suspended it completely. In total, about 300 large companies decided to take this step.
"Although it seemed that progress was being made in addressing these issues, recent events suggest that X still faces challenges" - said in a press statement Todd Krizelman, CEO and co-founder of MediaRadar.
According to eMarketer data, in 2022, advertising revenues on the X/Twitter platform reached 4.1 billion dollars. Forecasts for 2023 suggest a drop to 2.9 billion dollars. The total value of X is also clearly decreasing.
In October 2022, the platform was taken over by a group of investors led by Elon Musk for 44 billion dollars, and current forecasts indicate that the company's value has dropped to about 19 billion dollars.
However, Elon Musk himself does not seem to be moved by this situation. On November 29, the billionaire appeared on stage during the DealBook conference, where he referred, among other things, to his anti-Semitic posts and the boycott by advertisers. And he did it in his style.
"Don't advertise. If someone is going to blackmail with ads or money? F*** off. Is that clear? I hope it is. Hi Bob, if you're in the audience" - Musk said from the stage, simultaneously calling out Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, who had previously stated that he did not want his company to have anything to do with Musk.
Earlier, the billionaire also issued a statement in which he argues that he will file a lawsuit against the non-governmental organization Media Matters and all those who attacked the X platform. The billionaire maintains that the allegations of anti-Semitism have been manipulated to "destroy" the service.
Elon Musk in a lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman argues that the merger with Microsoft was a betrayal of the company's mission in pursuit of profit.
According to the latest forecasts from ABI Research, the augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) technology sector is on the verge of a revolution - by 2028, the number of AR/VR sets delivered is expected to increase more than fivefold, reaching 69 million units.
The company Creandum published a report on the salaries of startup founders. The study was conducted among 650 entrepreneurs from 47 European countries, and the aim was to provide data on the average earnings of founders at various stages of their companies' development.
Samsung joins the race for dominance in the field of AI. The Korean giant presented its first model of generative artificial intelligence named Gauss at the beginning of November 2023.
English