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.
    • RickRussell_CA@lemmy.worldEnglish
      70·
      1 year ago

      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.

      • LilB0kChoy@lemm.ee
        39·
        1 year ago

        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.

        • RickRussell_CA@lemmy.worldEnglish
          12·
          1 year ago

          My reading of the “it’s not just about money” statement was, “it’s not just about losing Apple’s advertising spend”.

          • LilB0kChoy@lemm.ee
            3·
            1 year ago

            I agree, and I may have muddled that in my response. I was more proposing an alternative to Apple’s “influencer” in ethics status being a driver for their departure, or for other companies.

            Positing that ethics may be a factor but ultimately that Apple’s motivation is financial and other businesses understand that. They’ll see it as the tide turning to where Twitter advertising is going to start hurting brands this the halo effect.

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          The cynic in me says whatever the motivation the largest driver is financial.

          Always is. “Ethics” is just a guide to survival as a society- corporate ethics is really just a guide to survival, too. Which is why so many corporations seem unethical to people… their guide to survival is “lie cheat and steal”… where people see that as problematic.

      • s_s@lemmy.one
        7·
        1 year ago

        You are talking like Apple isn’t still pumping elons garbage through their devices for a 30% cut.

        They’d pull the app if they really cared.

        • RickRussell_CA@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          You are talking like Apple isn’t still pumping elons garbage through their devices for a 30% cut.

          While Apple takes a 30% cut of app sales, as far as I know, they don’t make money from people using the free app. I don’t know that Twitter offers any in-app purchases that would be processed through Apple’s payment system.

        • Snot FlickermanEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          Just 8 years ago Apple and Google settled a lawsuit where they kept pay for engineers down by having an illegal non-poaching agreement where they agreed to not recruit each others talent.

          They are all bastards.

        • RickRussell_CA@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          I agree. But that seems to be the perception. I mean, it’s easy to imagine Apple taking a stand against antisemitism, but a little more difficult to imagine Samsung or Motorola taking such a stand.

          But as to whether their actual on-the-ground ethical standards are any better than the competition, I rather doubt it.

        • S_204@lemmy.worldEnglish
          6·
          1 year ago

          Ya, I’m gladdened to see that it’s not part of his story at every turn. I feel like that’s a positive thing. Acceptance is good.

          • Snot FlickermanEnglish
            4·
            1 year ago

            It was a huge part of his story when Apple was dodging taxes, mostly because they used PR to kind of hide behind him just coming out as a cudgel to say any criticism or questions about Apple tax dodging were driven by homophobia.

            It’s sickening when rich people use minority status to hand wave away legitimate criticism that has nothing to do with their minority status.

            Guy was running the richest company in the US and had a large team of private security at his behest but he was “brave” for coming out as gay. There was so much PR pushing that the time it was gross.

            Nah the no-name poverty-stricken kid growing up in a tiny town in the South who risks having the living shit kicked out of him daily for being gay is the kind of person who is brave for coming out. Not a top paid corporate board member who is basically untouchable.

            I’m not saying Tim Cook has never faced discrimination, but as the CEO of Apple? His position of power absolutely insulates him from the worst abuses most in the LGBT community face.

  • nutsack@lemmy.world
    101·
    1 year ago

    every fucking post on this website is about this guy I don’t give a shit holy fuck stop posting him

    • blind3rdeye@lemm.ee
      57·
      1 year ago

      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.

      • helenslunch@feddit.nl
        29·
        1 year ago

        The difference is that Twitter has suggestions and algorithms to help you find your way around. Mastodon is all manual.

      • evranch@lemmy.ca
        13·
        1 year ago

        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…

        • mateomaui@reddthat.comEnglish
          7·
          1 year ago

          Thanks for sharing. Feel free to blame Musk. He’s the one who renamed it to X, which is impossible to filter out.

          • Nelots@lemm.eeEnglish
            8·
            1 year ago

            You could filter out Twitter and realistically filter out a large chunk of them. Shit’s usually referred to “X, formerly known as Twitter…” in most posts I see.

              • evranch@lemmy.ca
                1·
                1 year ago

                I got the exact same reply from someone last week, not exactly a discussion starter. So I was curious and sure enough it’s the same guy!

                However you did edit in some context here and indeed that’s the problem with trying to filter out a single letter keyword… Though I doubt Elon had the sense to do it intentionally.

                • mateomaui@reddthat.comEnglish
                  2·
                  1 year ago

                  I also quote Bartles & Jaymes on occasion.

                  edit: the funny part here is that I haven’t said “Thanks for sharing” that much, it’s fairly new. And I don’t remember usernames, so the fact you’ve gotten it twice already is special.

  • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
    46·
    1 year ago

    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.

      • NewNewAccount@lemmy.world
        21·
        1 year ago

        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.

        • rambaroo@lemmy.world
          5·
          1 year ago

          The only people who consider white-passing Jewish people as non-white are actual white supremacists and Neo-Nazis.

          Normal people just assume if you look white, you are white, because they aren’t obsessed with breaking down ethnicities into a hierarchy.

          • ArtieShaw@kbin.social
            4·
            1 year ago

            This is the answer. Being “white” in the US didn’t have much to do with your skin tone. It was more closely linked to ancestry, religion, and class.

            The Irish or Polish weren’t “white” but that didn’t mean that anyone thought they were Black. My understanding of the Indian caste system is incomplete, but it seems like a closer model to the racist hierarchy in the US than anything else I’ve seen.

            1. WASP and have the receipts (DAR membership, for example)
            2. WASP and no one can say otherwise (named Smith or Jones)
            3. WASP adjacent (Protestants from Germany, Scandinavia, etc.)
            4. Catholics and Orthodox Christians
            5. Jews
            6. POC. Depending on location, your mileage will vary but you’re still at the bottom
  • blackbrook@mander.xyz
    31·
    1 year ago

    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…

    • BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works
      7·
      1 year ago

      3 times, but he has to do it in front of a mirror. When he was about to do the third time he renamed it, thus resetting the counter.