CNN's Oliver Darcy: X executives are “trying to tell advertisers this is a safe place to advertise your products. ... Clearly, all the evidence shows it's not.”
IBM suspended advertising on X after Media Matters report on its ads appearing alongside pro-Nazi content
Published
Citation From the November 16, 2023, edition of CNN News Central
OLIVER DARCY (CNN SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER): That's a separate matter over on X, where there is so much hate on the platform now that advertisers are seeing their ads running next to actual neo-Nazi content. And so there was this report out from the progressive Media Matters, a watchdog group, earlier today, that said all these brands have been having their ads placed adjacent to hate speech. IBM coming out quickly and saying that they have "zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination" and they have immediately suspended all advertising on X while they investigate what they described as an unacceptable situation. Again though, Pam, not new, we had a review last month at CNN that found a number of major advertisers -- including the NFL and Amazon and big blue chip advertisers -- were having their ads placed on an account for one of the most antisemitic, racist publications in existence. So this is a huge problem for Elon Musk and his Chief Executive Linda Yaccarino over there, because they're trying to tell advertisers this is a safe place to advertise your products, to market your products. Clearly, all the evidence shows it's not.