X ad boycott gathers pace amid antisemitism storm

An advertising boycott of social media platform X is gathering pace amid a furore over antisemitism on the site formerly known as Twitter.

Apple, Disney, Comcast, Warner Brothers Discovery and Paramount have all halted advertising on X, US media report, following hot on the heels of IBM.

The European Commission and the movie studio Lionsgate are also pulling their ad dollars from the platform.

It comes after a media watchdog flagged ads next to pro-Nazi posts on X.

X, owned by Elon Musk, said it is dedicated to combatting antisemitism.

A spokesperson for the company told the BBC on Thursday that X does not intentionally place brands "next to this kind of content".

And its chief executive Linda Yaccarino wrote in an earlier post on the site that 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".

The corporations' boycott follows an investigation by left-leaning watchdog Media Matters for America, which said it found ads bought by the companies next to posts including Hitler quotes, praise of Nazis and Holocaust denial.

On Thursday, IBM became the first company to pull its advertising from the site, saying it was "completely unacceptable" that its content appeared next to posts praising Adolf Hitler and Nazism.