Elon Musk could have put the ultimate nail in X’s coffin. On Wednesday, Musk appeared to endorse an antisemitic post by consumer @breakingbaht alleging that “Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.” In response, Musk posted, “You have spoken the actual truth.”

The unique put up appeared to echo the beliefs of the “great replacement” conspiracy principle, which is fashionable amongst white supremacists and right-wing extremists. The backlash has been swift. In a press release earlier today, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates condemned the “abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms, which runs against our core values as Americans,” and marquee advertisers have been fast to tug their enterprise. IBM, Disney, Liongsgate, and the European Union have pulled promoting from X in response to Musk’s put up. According to a report in Axios, Apple has additionally paused promoting on X.

At the time of publication, Apple had not responded to a number of requests for remark, nor has it confirmed that it’s pulling its promoting from X.

“Advertisers like IBM and Apple aren’t just big names, they’re big spenders on X,” says Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters, a media watchdog group which has been monitoring advertiser habits on X. Carusone, citing data shared by data insights firm Sensor Tower, says that in July, the highest 5 advertisers on X by spending had been Apple, FinanceBuzz.io, Amazon, Mondelez International, and Hewlett-Packard. In the previous, Apple has regularly been among the many prime 20 advertisers on X.

Carusone provides that Apple sometimes alerts a sure degree of brand name security to different, smaller advertisers. The firm can be identified for its stringent insurance policies round controversial content material in its App Store and by itself platforms. If Apple has paused, or plans to pause, its promoting on X, it “could have a halo effect,” Carusone claims, scaring different advertisers away from the platform. “It goes way beyond money.”

In August, X CEO Linda Yaccarino emphasised that the corporate was increasing its brand-safety instruments, designed to provide advertisers and entrepreneurs extra management over what sort of content material their advertisements appeared in proximity to.