Walmart is the latest large advertiser to suspend funding from X, Elon Musk ailing social media venture, amid concerns about hate speech – despite reaching a sizable audience on the network.
“We’re not advertising on X because we’ve found that other platforms reach our customers better,” Walmart stated in a statement.
The statement comes only two days after Musk went on an expletive-laden rant on stage with journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin about firms withholding spending on X, formerly known as Twitter, in reaction to antisemitic and other vile content. Musk called advertisers pulling out “blackmail” and, using an expletive effectively told them to go.
“Don’t advertise,” Musk instructed.
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Walmart has opted to stop funding X, joining the Walt Disney firm, IBM, NBCUniversal its parent firm Comcast, and other companies.
Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X, is a former NBCUniversal executive hired by Musk to restore ties with advertisers who fled when he took over, afraid that his loosening of content regulations would allow vile and toxic speech to flourish, harming their businesses. X’s relationships with advertisers, on the other hand, do not appear to be improving.
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“Walmart has a wonderful community of more than a million people on X, and with half a billion people on X, every year the platform experiences 15 billion impressions about the holidays alone with more than 50% of X users doing most or all of their shopping online,” Joe Benarroch, the chief operating officer of X, said in a statement released on Monday.
