IBM, Lionsgate, the European Union, and, reportedly, Apple, have all pulled advertising from X following Elon Musk’s apparent endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory. Experts say it could soon get much worse.
They're referring to the "halo effect" of Apple accepting the claim of antisemitism.
Truthful or not, Apple is sort of an "influencer" when it comes to ethics, with one of the few openly gay CEOs in big tech and a history of doing, or at least claiming to do, the right thing when any negative labor practices are revealed.
I think there is a sense that if Apple is willing to walk away, it's a signal to other companies that the problem is real.
I think there is a sense that if Apple is willing to walk away, it's a signal to other companies that the problem is real.
I agree that Apple may be the canary in the coal mine but I propose a motive beyond ethics.
It may be that Apple has seen a reduction in traffic from ads on Twitter recently and this latest move by Musk, coupled with everything else, gave them leverage to get out of any contracted ad buys. They pull ineffective ads, help their brand and ethics image, and save money doing it.
The cynic in me says whatever the motivation the largest driver is financial.
Some people seem to bounce off Mastodon, saying that it doesn't have the content that they were looking for. I'd suggest that it probably does have the content that you are looking for, but you can't expect instantly see everything you are looking for from a fresh account.
People have spent years building up their twitter feeds; finding the people they like to follow, and browsing for new things, getting recommendations, and removing they stuff they don't like. You can't expect to match that level of content 10 mins after signing up on Mastodon. You will have to look around and tell it what you want to see before it will be what you want it to be.
On Wednesday, Musk appeared to endorse an antisemitic post by user @breakingbaht alleging that “Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.” In response, Musk posted, “You have spoken the actual truth.”
The original post seemed to echo the beliefs of the “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which is popular among white supremacists and right-wing extremists.
Jewish people tend to not be considered white even though they are oftentimes fair skinned, blue eyes, etc.
In the US, Italian and Irish immigrants also used to not be considered white either. It’s a label applied to groups when it’s most convenient. Doesn’t necessarily have a lot of logic behind it beyond racism.
Imagine filtering "musk", "Biden", "trump", and "communism and socialism are good and moral and it has always worked every time we tried it" from Lemmy.
Starship launch tomorrow though, wouldn't want to miss out on hype because of something titled "Elon Musk's Starship Rocket" etc... I'm a big space nerd and while Elon is a dork this rocket will be a massive leap for everything space related if it works out.
Fuck X/Twitter though, sick of hearing about it for sure. I've heard rumours that SpaceX only does as well as they do because they have Shotwell running the show and they have Elon wranglers to keep him away from anything important...
Is that beard to make him look younger? Because it looks like that beard you sometimes see on young guys figuring out that they can't really grow a decent beard...
I'm of the opinion they want it dead. Twitter was used to organize protestors during The Arab Spring. The House of Saud hasn't forgotten that. 40 billion is a small price to pay to keep the peasants in their place. They gave Musk the money knowing he would drive it into the ground, intentionally or not.