Hyundai is the latest brand to stop advertising on X because of antisemitism

Hyundai is the latest brand to stop advertising on X because of antisemitism

Hyundai said on Thursday it was halting advertising on X, formerly known as Twitter, a day after ads from the automaker reportedly appeared alongside antisemitic and pro-Hitler posts on the social media site.

On Wednesday, user Nancy Levine Stearns posted a screenshot of a paid Hyundai ad over an antisemitic post from a verified “premium” account. The account posted tweets denying the Holocaust and perpetuating antisemitic rhetoric.

In response to a CNN query that included Stearns’ post, a Hyundai spokesperson replied: “We have paused our ads on X and are speaking with X directly about brand safety to ensure this issue is addressed.”

Hyundai is the latest major company to stop advertising on X, after its owner Elon Musk publicly embraced antisemitic theories favored by white supremacists in 2023.

NBC News first reported the pause.

X has suspended the antisemitic account adjacent to the ad, X’s head of business operations, Joe Benarroch, said in an email to CNN. The account’s bio also had antisemitic overtones, Benarroch said.

Benarroch said Hyundai has run a Corporate-level account on X, focusing on climate change ads aimed at reaching policymakers. He said the company’s ad agency did not activate Brand Safety settings, and the campaign ran without X’s direct sales team. X’s Brand Safety settings allow advertisers to ensure their ads don’t run alongside posts the company might not like.

“As a result an ad ran alongside the post – that X had acted and even suspended the account,” Benarroch said in an email to CNN.

But most of these accounts still exist, according to NBC News. An analysis from the outlet this week found 150 verified premium accounts that had “posted or amplified pro-Nazi content.”

X News called the report a “gotcha article” and claimed NBC did not disclose the full extent of its investigation to the site.

Musk in November 2023 agreed with a post on X that claimed that the Jewish community rejects “hate against white people,” calling it “the real truth.”

Musk apologized for the post later that month but told advertisers who halted their spending on X because of concerns about antisemitic content to “beggar” themselves.

After visiting Auschwitz in January, he said X has less antisemitic content than other social media platforms, but admitted he didn’t realize until recently that antisemitism was a widespread problem in the United States.