The Desk appreciates the support of readers who purchase products or services through links on our website. Learn more...

Media brands suspend activity on Elon Musk’s X platform

An illuminated "X" appears on the roof of Twitter's corporate headquarters in San Francisco. (Courtesy image)
An illuminated “X” appears on the roof of Twitter’s corporate headquarters in San Francisco. (Courtesy image)

Some legacy media brands have stopped posting to their official accounts on X, the Elon Musk-owned social media platform formerly known as Twitter, according to a report.

The pause in activity comes as traditional and new media brands re-evaluate their business relationships with Musk and X after the tech guru appeared to endorse an anti-Semitic post made by another user in recent weeks.



Flagship social media accounts connected with Paramount Global, Lionsgate, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) and the Walt Disney Company stopped posting to X around two weeks ago, according to CNN.

Some major programming and product announcements have been made on competing social media platforms like Threads, the X clone developed by Instagram and Facebook parent company Meta, while others have taken to Facebook, Instagram and Mastodon accounts for regular updates.



The news comes as X faces a monumental crisis involving its advertisers, with the platform pegged to lose around $75 million this year, according to internal documents reviewed by the New York Times. Around 100 major advertisers have paused or entirely dropped their ad campaigns from X, according to records cited by the Times. Those brands include streaming service Netflix and technology giant Microsoft. (Executives at X say its losses connected to the advertising business is substantially lower than $75 million.)

In a memo circulated among X employees last week, the company’s CEO Linda Yaccarino said the platform remain committed to combatting hate, discrimination and misinformation across all fronts.



“For all of us who work at X, we’ve been extremely clear about our efforts to combat anti-Semitism and discrimination, as there’s no place for it anywhere in the world,” Yaccarino said, according to a copy of the memo reviewed by Business Insider.

The brand and advertiser exodus compounds problems at X since Musk acquired the website through what became a hostile takeover bid late last year. Since his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, the company has been plagued with technical and security problems, and users have had to juggle ever-shifting content and abuse-related policies that appear to change based on Musk’s whims.

Some news organizations said they were pulling back from their participation on X after Musk ordered their accounts to be marked with controversial labels suggesting they were government-operated or state-funded outlets. The BBC, NPR and ABC News in Australia were among the news brands affected by the decision.

Musk has also repeatedly targeted journalists who post content that he personally disagrees with. In April, Twitter issued a permanent ban against Wired reporter Dell Cameron after he authored a story about a hacker who compromised the Twitter account of a prominent conservative podcaster (Cameron has since taken his daily postings to Bluesky, a Twitter-like platform). The ban came several months after Musk issued a similar edict against a handful of journalists who posted updates about his private jet.

Get stories like these in your inbox, plus free email alerts on breaking tech and media news.

Photo of author

About the Author:

Matthew Keys

Matthew Keys is a nationally-recognized, award-winning journalist who has covered the business of media, technology, radio and television for more than 11 years. He is the publisher of The Desk and contributes to Know Techie, Digital Content Next and StreamTV Insider. He previously worked for Thomson Reuters, the Walt Disney Company, McNaughton Newspapers and Tribune Broadcasting. Connect with Matthew on LinkedIn by clicking or tapping here.
Home » News » Industries » Social Media » Media brands suspend activity on Elon Musk’s X platform