IBM is taking strict action against X after the tech giant found its ads placed right next to anti-semitic content across the platform, formerly known as Twitter.
The company mentioned how it has a zero-tolerance policy for such actions and that seeing the level of hatred and discrimination across X was a huge wake-up call. This was in terms of how lenient X has become in terms of allowing such actions to take place.
X immediately investigated the situation, calling it unacceptable. This was confirmed by IBM’s spokesperson who detailed more about the matter through a statement that was published yesterday.
On Wednesday, more reports from Media Matters revealed how it witnessed so many ads from leading tech names of the industry put near the posts that celebrated the anti-Semitic theme. The latter included ads from Apple, IBM, Oracle, and Xfinity, amongst others. And the theme for such ads happened to be content touting former Nazi leader Hitler as well as his Party, a feature that was commonly published on X.
Image: mediamatters
It’s definitely not the best news for Elon Musk and his team as the new CEO has been doing everything to try and get back the platform’s advertisers after they halted all campaigns, post Elon Musk’s takeover of the organization.
So many researchers have been proving for a while now how X fails to keep its controversial posts at bay with the right sort of actions that are required. And seeing things like these spiral out of hand has people talking for obvious reasons.
The facts are documented, despite X denying all such claims across the board.
Speaking to CNBC via email, X claims that all such posts that were described as hateful by Media Matters were immediately removed and they wouldn’t be able to make any profits through monetization as that option was immediately scrapped. Similarly, X said that the content that accompanied such posts would be getting a not-safe-for-work tag, putting reach at a bare minimum.
The overall advertising system for X was put in the spotlight by its own spokesperson, who mentioned clearly that the goal is not to purposefully promote such material or actively place ads near it.
X also mentioned that no brand would ever wish to support such behavior with such actions and they’re taking the matter very seriously. But it was shocking also to see X accuse Media Matters of targeting X in particular.
They feel the group goes to the extent of searching for such content on X and then heads on over to accounts to find whether or not ads were placed, noting down the number of brands that were spotted near them. Each time they clicked on refresh, they would see more and more names and that is something they call unfair.
Bravo and CNBC’s ownership partner Comcast is also actively investigating such behavior while iPhone maker Apple and tech giant Oracle failed to address any queries on the reports publicly.
Whatever the case may be, the decision of IBM in terms of halting all ads through X that seemingly promote such activity and boost views of hateful and discriminatory posts is a clear reminder of how X needs to do more to handle the matter.
This is especially true after we saw the company’s head, Elon Musk publish his own hateful posts that managed to receive a lot of backlash. He was seen criticizing harshly how the popular nonprofit company Anti-Defamation League works.
This includes accusing it of unfair attacks on the Western part of the part that critics certainly did not agree with, nor did appreciate. And that is shocking because as we’re all well aware, most of the West puts out support for Jews and those located in Israel.
Musk was seemingly accused of using his great influence to promote such content when the US has antisemitism exploding at an alarming rate. Hence, it’s definitely dangerous to make use of one individual’s influence to promote such controversial theories, it added. And that’s exactly when we saw IBM spring into action with its ad-pausing activities.
Read next: Choose Gifts Wisely: Mozilla Study Reveals Lack of Privacy Policies in Key Tech Products
The company mentioned how it has a zero-tolerance policy for such actions and that seeing the level of hatred and discrimination across X was a huge wake-up call. This was in terms of how lenient X has become in terms of allowing such actions to take place.
X immediately investigated the situation, calling it unacceptable. This was confirmed by IBM’s spokesperson who detailed more about the matter through a statement that was published yesterday.
On Wednesday, more reports from Media Matters revealed how it witnessed so many ads from leading tech names of the industry put near the posts that celebrated the anti-Semitic theme. The latter included ads from Apple, IBM, Oracle, and Xfinity, amongst others. And the theme for such ads happened to be content touting former Nazi leader Hitler as well as his Party, a feature that was commonly published on X.
It’s definitely not the best news for Elon Musk and his team as the new CEO has been doing everything to try and get back the platform’s advertisers after they halted all campaigns, post Elon Musk’s takeover of the organization.
So many researchers have been proving for a while now how X fails to keep its controversial posts at bay with the right sort of actions that are required. And seeing things like these spiral out of hand has people talking for obvious reasons.
The facts are documented, despite X denying all such claims across the board.
Speaking to CNBC via email, X claims that all such posts that were described as hateful by Media Matters were immediately removed and they wouldn’t be able to make any profits through monetization as that option was immediately scrapped. Similarly, X said that the content that accompanied such posts would be getting a not-safe-for-work tag, putting reach at a bare minimum.
The overall advertising system for X was put in the spotlight by its own spokesperson, who mentioned clearly that the goal is not to purposefully promote such material or actively place ads near it.
X also mentioned that no brand would ever wish to support such behavior with such actions and they’re taking the matter very seriously. But it was shocking also to see X accuse Media Matters of targeting X in particular.
They feel the group goes to the extent of searching for such content on X and then heads on over to accounts to find whether or not ads were placed, noting down the number of brands that were spotted near them. Each time they clicked on refresh, they would see more and more names and that is something they call unfair.
Bravo and CNBC’s ownership partner Comcast is also actively investigating such behavior while iPhone maker Apple and tech giant Oracle failed to address any queries on the reports publicly.
Whatever the case may be, the decision of IBM in terms of halting all ads through X that seemingly promote such activity and boost views of hateful and discriminatory posts is a clear reminder of how X needs to do more to handle the matter.
This is especially true after we saw the company’s head, Elon Musk publish his own hateful posts that managed to receive a lot of backlash. He was seen criticizing harshly how the popular nonprofit company Anti-Defamation League works.
This includes accusing it of unfair attacks on the Western part of the part that critics certainly did not agree with, nor did appreciate. And that is shocking because as we’re all well aware, most of the West puts out support for Jews and those located in Israel.
Musk was seemingly accused of using his great influence to promote such content when the US has antisemitism exploding at an alarming rate. Hence, it’s definitely dangerous to make use of one individual’s influence to promote such controversial theories, it added. And that’s exactly when we saw IBM spring into action with its ad-pausing activities.
Read next: Choose Gifts Wisely: Mozilla Study Reveals Lack of Privacy Policies in Key Tech Products
