X owner Elon Musk has continued his tirade against major corporations who’ve suspended advertising on his social network, after growing concerns about hate speech on the platform.
Musk last year asked whether Apple “hate[s] free speech in America” when the company paused advertising over previous concerns about the social network, and is now calling for Disney CEO Bob Iger to be fired …
2022: ‘Apple hates free speech’
When Musk bought Twitter in April of last year, he announced that he was a “free speech absolutist” and would be essentially allowing hate speech and disinformation to run rampant on the platform, relying on others to counter it.
Things escalated when he removed blue checkmarks from verified accounts, and instead allowed anyone to buy one for $8. That predictably led to a mass of hoax accounts.
The ensuing chaos saw a number of major brands suspend advertising on the platform, afraid of being associated with the free-for-all world Musk had created. Apple was one of these, leading Musk to make a very public attack on the company.
In the latest development at Twitter, Elon Musk has taken to his social platform to share that Apple has “mostly stopped advertising.” Along with the announcement, he implied in his short tweet that the decision makes the iPhone maker an opponent of free speech.
Things did gradually calm down after Twitter started addressing the hoax verified account problem, and advertisers slowly returned – Apple among them.
2023: Disney CEO Bob Iger ‘should be fired’
Almost exactly a year later, renewed concerns about hate speech have again seen more than 100 major corporations suspended advertising on what is now X.
Apple was one of the first of these, acting after it was revealed that one of its ads was shown alongside neo-Nazi posts. Musk argued that this was a deliberate manipulation, and promptly filed a lawsuit against the organization which identified the issue. But the very lawsuit itself admitted that this had in fact happened without any artificial circumstances.
While Apple, IBM, and a handful of other major brands paused advertising on X at this point, it was Musk’s own endorsement of an anti-semitic tweet which led more than 100 others to follow.
Brands who have suspended advertising on X say they were more concerned about the behavior of Musk himself, who responded to an antisemitic post with the comment: “You have said the actual truth.” That comment remains on the platform almost two weeks later, with no sign of a withdrawal or apology.
Musk did, finally, apologize for that – though it remains on the platform for anyone to see.
Asked what he would say to advertisers who have withdrawn their ads, Musk responded: “Go f*ck yourself.” He specifically singled out Iger with a “Hi Bob” follow-up, before last week attacking the CEO for the box office failures of The Marvels and Wish.
He’s now called for the CEO to be fired.
No word against Apple this time
It’s unclear why Musk chose to single out Disney this time, and to say nothing about Apple – especially as the Cupertino company was one of the first to act, and Disney followed some time later. Maybe he has a new year resolution to insult only one major corporation at a time.
After the last mess, Musk did meet with Apple CEO Tim Cook, and the iPhone maker did later resume advertising.
We’ll never know what happened during that meeting. Some suggested that Cook might have wanted to up the pressure on Musk to address the problem by threatening the app’s status in the App Store. Much as I enjoy the idea of Cook suggesting Musk might find it hard to swim in that pond with a couple of Mac Pros tied to his feet, I doubt anything happened beyond a polite suggestion that maybe it was time to calm things down a little.
What happens next is anyone’s guess; we are talking about Musk, after all. Whether Apple, and Cook, continue to get a pass this time around remains to be seen.
Photo: Miranda Campbell/Unsplash
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