The White House Criticizes Elon Musk for Sharing Antisemitic X Post; Apple Halts Ads

The White House slammed X owner Elon Musk on Friday for supporting an antisemitic post on the social media platform this week, while Apple responded by pausing all advertising.

According to Axios, Musk responded to a post on his platform that said Jewish communities support “dialectical hatred against whites” by saying, “You said the actual truth.” Though he later suggested he was referring mainly to the Anti-Defamation League, the tech billionaire did not delete his original reply.

“It is unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie behind the most fatal act of Antisemitism in American history at any time, let alone one month after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement. “We condemn this abhorrent promotion of Antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms, which runs against our core values as Americans.”

Musk has come under fire for the post, with more than 160 rabbis and Jewish activists reiterating their call for large advertisers like Apple, Google, Amazon and Disney to stop funding X, formerly Twitter, through ad buys.

On Friday, sources told Axios that Apple is pausing all advertising on X, following Musk’s endorsement of the antisemitic post.

The left-leaning nonprofit Media Matters for America published a report on Thursday that found Apple ads were being placed next to pro-Nazi content on the platform. Other affected brands reportedly included Bravo, IBM, Oracle and Xfinity.

In response to the report, X “did a sweep on the accounts that Media Matters found and they will [no] longer be monetizable,” an executive at the social media company told Axios Thursday. The specific posts mentioned will also be labeled “Sensitive Media.”

“The X system is not intentionally placing a brand actively next to this type of content, nor is a brand actively trying to support this type of content with an ad placement,” the executive continued in the emailed statement.

Apple has been a major advertiser on Musk’s social media site and its decision to pause follows a similar move by IBM.

IBM announced on Thursday that it would be halting advertising on X, saying in a statement it “has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination.”

“[W]e have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation,” the company said.

A spokesperson from Lions Gate Entertainment also confirmed to Axios that the company is pulling its advertising from X.

In a post on Thursday, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said the company has been “extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination.”

“There’s no place for it anywhere in the world — it’s ugly and wrong,” she wrote. “Full stop.”