Ubisoft Halts Twitter Ads, Joining IBM, Apple, Disney, Warner Bros.

By Kate Irwin

Ubisoft is pulling its ads from Twitter, also known as X, Axios reported Monday. 

The Assassin’s Creed publisher’s advertising pause comes after tech firms like Apple, IBM, and Oracle as well as Hollywood studios like Disney, Paramount, Lionsgate, Comcast, NBCU, and Warner Bros. Discovery stopped running ads on the social media platform due to concerns that antisemitic content is swirling on the site unchecked.

While Ubisoft’s exact reason for suspending its Twitter ads has not yet been confirmed, the parade of billion-dollar firms pulling ads from the platform could have certainly influenced the game studio’s decision.

Decrypt has reached out to Ubisoft for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.

Last week, Twitter owner Elon Musk made a point of agreeing with a post that has been widely deemed antisemitic. Musk then further criticized the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting antisemitism. 

U.S. media watchdog organization Media Matters published an article last week highlighting that Twitter ads for companies like Apple, Bravo, IBM, Oracle, and Xfinity have been placed beside pro-Nazi content. Twitter ads for firms like Amazon and NBC Universal are also appearing next to white nationalist hashtags, the media nonprofit group reported.

This raised alarms at many of the tech and entertainment firms, some of whom have since suspended advertising on the social media platform.

“IBM has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination, and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation,” IBM told Financial Times last week.

Forbes wrote Sunday that advertising executives have since urged Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino, who previously worked at NBC, to resign in light of the ongoing controversy (Yaccarino has publicly condemned antisemitism and discrimination). Musk has also denied claims that he is antisemitic.

In response to an accusation that Musk’s ongoing tirade of tweets won’t “bring the ad spend,” the Twitter and Tesla CEO wrote that any “fake advocacy groups” are trying “to suppress free speech” and “should remember that karma is real.”

Edited by Andrew Hayward

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