IBM Immediately Suspends Advertising From X/Twitter After Discovering Its Ads Appeared Next to Pro-Nazi Content

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Telecom giant Verizon hired Leslie Berland, previously the top marketing exec at Peloton and Twitter, as CMO. Berland will assume the role of executive VP and chief marketing officer at Verizon, effective Jan. 9, 2024.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Get ready to see “The Kardashians” standing next to Baby Yoda on your Disney+ home screen. Beginning Dec. 6, the significant majority of Hulu content will be available on Disney+ in the U.S.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Former “Good Morning America” hosts Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes have addressed their ouster from the ABC News morning show for the first time — on a new podcast that debuted a year to the day after the network suspended them.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Verizon is making its latest aggressive push to bundle up streaming packages — offering ad-supported versions of Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max for $10 per month. That’s about a 40% discount on the services compared with the $17/month it would cost to purchase them separately.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Susan Sarandon issued an apology for controversial comments she made at a pro-Palestine rally in New York last month. At the Nov.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor In its never-ending effort to try to reach younger news consumers, CNN has launched CNN Shorts — a new vertical video player on its website designed for smartphones. CNN already produces vertical-video news briefs for platforms including TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. Now it sees a growing opportunity for CNN Shorts on its owned-and-operated platforms — where it can directly sell its own advertising.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Elon Musk this week angrily told big advertisers like Disney and Apple who have halted spending on X/Twitter to “go fuck yourself.” Bill Ackman, head of investment holding company Pershing Square Holdings and an investor in X, believes Musk has a point — opining that large marketers employ a double standard in reacting to Musk’s combative rhetoric and “free speech” stance. “I thought @elonmusk’s interview with @andrewrsorkin was one of the great interviews ever,” Ackman wrote in a post on X Thursday evening, referring to Musk’s appearance the New York Times’ DealBook Summit.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The same day activist investor Nelson Peltz announced he was launching a proxy campaign to get seats on Disney’s board of directors, the company adopted amended bylaws covering nominations of directors by outside parties. In a bid to win shareholder favor amid the brewing proxy battle, Disney separately on Thursday announced a cash dividend of $0.30 per share, payable Jan.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Moonbug Entertainment, the kids’ entertainment powerhouse behind the hit “CoComelon” franchise, is bringing on board its first chief marketing officer: Peter Stone, a nine-year veteran of Netflix. In the new role, Stone will be responsible for Moonbug’s global marketing strategy, as well as the evolution and growth of its brands. He will be based in Moonbug’s London office and starts Dec.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Linda Yaccarino, who’s already facing an uphill battle in winning over advertisers to X, has her work cut out for her to restore trust with big marketers after her boss profanely dissed those who had suspended advertising from the platform. Almost six months into her gig as CEO of X, Yaccarino continues to try to clean up PR messes created by Elon Musk, the shoot-from-the-lip megabillionaire and self-appointed defender of free speech who owns the company formerly known as Twitter.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor A visibly irate Elon Musk said advertisers who pulled spending from X/Twitter, following his post that endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory, were trying to “blackmail” the company and threatened to drive it into bankruptcy. Musk, currently the world’s wealthiest individual, had a message to big advertisers including Disney that halted spending on his social network: “Go fuck yourself… Go. Fuck.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor After Sports Illustrated was called out for publishing articles from apparently nonexistent authors with AI-generated headshots, the company that operates SI said the content in question came from a third party that had provided assurances those were written by humans. The Arena Group, which publishes Sports Illustrated, said it has ended its partnership with AdVon Commerce, the company that supplied the posts.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor After Elon Musk last month decided to banish article headlines from posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, he’s bringing them back — but in a different format. In early October, Musk said the removal of headlines under posts of links on X would “greatly improve the esthetics.” On Wednesday, the tech mogul said, “In an upcoming release, X will overlay title in the upper potion of the image of a URL card.” He noted in a follow-up that the headlines would appear overlaid on the image of an article, not below it: “Every pixel matters,” Musk wrote.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Binance Holdings, operator of the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, pleaded guilty to U.S. criminal charges that it violated the Bank Secrecy Act and other laws and will pay $4.3 billion to resolve the investigation, the Justice Department said Tuesday. In addition, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao entered a guilty plea of failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program in violation of the BSA, according to the DOJ.

KISS‘ Gene Simmons and Neil Young have announced that they are quitting X, formerly known as Twitter, after Elon Musk appeared to endorse an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.Simmons did not specify exactly why he was leaving the social platform, but it’s likely due to Musk voicing his agreement with an anti-Semitic conspiracy that Jewish communities push “hatred against whites”, also known as the “great replacement” theory.Musk replied to a post making the claims and stated: “You have said the actual truth.”Simmons announced his departure by simply sharing: “Friends, I’ve decided to end my X/Twitter posting.”You have said the actual truth— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2023 Young announced his decision to leave the social platform on his website, sharing: “We are stopping all use of X we can control. For reasons that should be obvious to the richest man on Earth, we are taking this action against his company.”Alongside the text was a picture of Twitter boss Musk with the caption: “Teslas should fly flags of love – not hate.”The message continued: “For our many Palestinian friends and our many Jewish friends, we do need to start over in the present and release our terrible connections to the past.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Elon Musk, as promised, is hauling Media Matters into court — alleging the liberal watchdog group “knowingly and maliciously manufactured” images depicting neo-Nazi and white-nationalist posts on X next to major marketers’ ads. The complaint seeks unspecified monetary damages, as well as an injunction requiring Media Matters to “immediately delete, take down or otherwise remove” the article titled “As Musk endorses antisemitic conspiracy theory, X has been placing ads for Apple, Bravo, IBM, Oracle, and Xfinity next to pro-Nazi content.” Media Matters reps did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor After a spate of major advertisers said they were halting spending on X over owner Elon Musk’s support of an antisemitic conspiracy theory, the tech mogul said he plans to file a “thermonuclear lawsuit” against a research group that had claimed to find ads on X/Twitter running against pro-Nazi and white nationalist posts. On Friday, Disney, Warner Bros.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The White House condemned Elon Musk as promoting “antisemitic and racist hate” after the tech mogul endorsed a conspiracy theory that Jewish people “promote hatred against whites.” On Wednesday, Musk — CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X — agreed with an X user who promoted the conspiracy theory 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 the now-removed post, the X user said they were “deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest shit now about western Jewish populations” who are facing “hordes of minorities that support flooding their country.” In response to that, Musk commented, “You have said the actual truth.” In a statement released Friday, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said, “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… We condemn this abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms, which runs against our core values as Americans. We all have a responsibility to bring people together against hate, and an obligation to speak out against anyone who attacks the dignity of their fellow Americans and compromises the safety of our communities.” Reps for X and Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor YouTube has updated its monetization policy for adult content in two areas: Creators are now eligible to receive ad revenue from videos that feature “non-sexually graphic dance, such as twerking,” as well as content related to breastfeeding. In a notice posted Thursday, the video platform said certain content showcasing “sensual dancing” is now allowable under its advertiser-friendly content guidelines.

Elon Musk is once again facing furor over one of his X/Twitter posts, this time when he agreed with a user’s comment that Jews have a “hatred against whites.”