Walmart has joined the growing trend of major marketers pulling their ads from X, Elon Musk’s troubled social media platform, amid concerns about hate speech and to better reach their customers.
“We aren’t advertising on X as we’ve found some other platforms better reach our customers,” Walmart stated in a declaration.
While Walmart made the move public on Friday, Joe Benarroch, head of operations at X, stated the company has not advertised on the platform since October. The company, he added, “has just been naturally connecting with its community of more than one million people on X.”
Walmart did not immediately respond to a message for further comment on Friday afternoon.
The announcement comes two days after Musk’s controversial comments about advertisers pulling their ads from X in response to hate speech and antisemitic content. Musk’s strong language and criticisms sparked a significant reaction from advertisers.
“Don’t advertise,” Musk said.
Walmart, the Walt Disney Co., IBM, NBCUniversal, and its parent company Comcast have also decided to stop spending on X. Many withdrew earlier this month after their ads were found to be appearing alongside content praising Nazis. X has since sued the advocacy group Media Matters, accusing them of creating the report to drive advertisers away and harm the platform.
X’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, a former NBCUniversal executive, has been working to rebuild relationships with advertisers who left after Musk took over. Despite her efforts, relations with advertisers do not seem to be improving.
“Walmart has a great community of more than a million people on X, and with a half a billion people on X, every year the platform experiences 15 billion impressions about the holidays alone with more than 50% of X users doing most or all of their shopping online,” Benarroch said in a statement.
