The thing about going full Nazi, as X (formerly Twitter) has, is that anyone other than the worst of humanity steers clear of you. Case in point: Paris Hilton’s entertainment company 11:11 Media abruptly ended their partnership with Musk’s social media platform X one month after launching.
The partnership—which, again, launched last month—ended due, in large part, to X being a cesspit of antisemitism, with owner Musk spewing some of it:
The decision by 11:11 Media to pull its advertising campaign from X comes after at least half a dozen brands also paused their ad spending on X last week over concerns about pro-Nazi content and Musk’s embrace of an antisemitic conspiracy theory on the platform.
CNN
The coffee creamer in my fridge lasted longer than Hilton’s partnership with X. Simply wild. Once again, I’d like to remind everyone that billionaires are not inherently smarter than any of us. They merely have more money, usually through inherited wealth, as is the case for Musk. He is a bad person with terrible views.
If you weren’t aware, X was running ads for your usual suspects, like Amazon, Apple, and IBM next to terrible, hateful, vile social posts, and were caught last week:
X’s problems multiplied Thursday [November 16] when Media Matters for America said it had found ads for companies including Apple, Bravo, Oracle, Xfinity and IBM placed next to posts celebrating Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party on the platform.
The left-leaning media watchdog group reported Friday [November 17] that it had also found ads for Amazon, NBA Mexico, NBCUniversal Catalyst, Action Network and Club for Growth next to posts featuring white nationalist hashtags.
The Hill
Not only that, but Musk was espousing some terrible, hateful antisemitic bulls****, publicly, and refused to back down:
After one X user claimed that Jews have been encouraging “dialectical hatred against whites” and referenced the “hordes of minorities that support flooding their country,” Musk suggested that the poster had said “the actual truth.”
The original post echoes an antisemitic conspiracy theory often espoused by hate groups that accuses Jews of wanting to flood Western countries with nonwhite immigrants.
The Hill
As a terrible reminder, this concept of “replacement theory” was used by a domestic terrorist to attack and kill 11 members of the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburg in 2018. It is nothing but vile antisemetic hate speech.
I genuinely don’t know how we went from Nazis in pop culture always being the bad guys to one of the main social media platforms in the world accepting advertising dollars and running pro-Hitler ads while its owner spews hateful antisemitic rhetoric. Seriously, where did we, as a society, get so far off the right path, and can we please get a do-over on this one? Banning literal Nazis from your social media site seems like a no-brainer, and yet? Musk simply can’t bear to part from them. I wonder why that is?
Regardless, Hilton and 11:11 Media want not part of this vile, hateful mess, and pulled out of the agreement fast:
“11:11 Media made the decision to immediately pull the campaign from the platform,” Bruce Gersh, 11:11 Media’s president and chief operating officer, told CNN on Tuesday.
CNN
In case you were wondering, this partnership was never supposed to be a short-term thing. It was announced with all the fan-fare of a long-term engagement between the two companies:
The deal, which was touted by [X CEO Linda] Yaccarino as a long-term, “official partnership” between Hilton, 11:11 Media, and X, aimed to create “a launchpad for new initiatives in video and live video, live commerce, Spaces, and so much more.” The deal also established a revenue-sharing agreement between the parties.
Yaccarino, a former NBCUniversal advertising chief who has been tasked with wooing wary advertisers back to X despite Musk’s tumultuous leadership, declared Hilton the “queen of pop culture” and described the partnership as “a new era” that would reside exclusively on X.
CNN
Needless to say that plans changed when everyone realized they were doing business with a platform that allowed pro-Nazi content to exist on it. Again, I do not understand how a literal generation of people fought and died to eradicate the Nazis, only to have them given a safe haven on a social media platform less than 80 years later. Simply disgusting.
Thankfully, Hilton’s company is doing the right thing if X won’t. As someone who lived through the early ’00s, I never thought I’d say this, but at least Paris Hilton has good sense and morals. 2023 is a wild and terrifying time to be alive to say the least.
(featured image: Adrián Monroy/Medios y Media/Getty Images; Kirsty Wigglesworth – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
