White House Criticizes Musk's 'Disgusting' anti-Semitic Lies, advertisers ban X

The White House on Friday condemned Elon Musk's endorsement of a "disgusting" anti-Semitic conspiracy theory on X. At the same time, major American companies including Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Discovery, and NBCUniversal parent Comcast have stopped their advertisements on their social media sites.

Musk on Wednesday agreed with a post on X that falsely claimed that Jews were spreading hatred against white people, calling him "the Great Replacement."

The White House accused Musk of "disgustingly promoting anti-Semitism and racist hatred" that "goes against our core values as Americans."

"It is unacceptable to repeat despicable lies a month after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust," White House spokesman Andrew Bates said, referring to the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

In addition to Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Comcast, Lions Gate Entertainment and Paramount Global said Friday they were also pausing their advertising on X.

Axios reported that Apple, the world's largest company by market value, is also stopping its advertisements.

IBM halted its advertising on X on Thursday after a report found that its ads were placed next to content promoting Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.

Media Matters said it learned that corporate ads from IBM, Apple, Oracle, and Comcast's Xfinity were being placed with anti-Semitic content.

Advertisers have pulled out of the X site, formerly known as Twitter, according to civil rights groups. They say Musk bought it in October 2022 and reduced content moderation, resulting in a sharp increase in hate speech on X.

Representatives for Musk and X again declined to comment on his post on Friday.

X CEO Linda Yaccarino wrote Thursday that there is no place for this anywhere in the world – it is ugly and wrong.

Anti-Semitism has been on the rise in recent years in the United States and around the world.

Since last month's attack sparked a war between Israel and Hamas, anti-Semitic incidents in the United States are up compared to a year earlier, according to the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit that fights anti-Semitism. There has been an increase of almost 400%.