ADL Calls For Twitter Ad Boycott Over Hate Speech Under Musk

Dozens of the most prominent civil rights groups and nonprofit organizations in America have issued a joint call for advertisers to pause their spending on Twitter amid concerns about the social media platform since Elon Musk’s takeover several weeks ago.

Photo Insert: Food manufacturer General Mills, which owns brands including Cheerios and Lucky Charms, is of the companies that have stopped spending on Twitter.

Reporting from Washington for the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Ben Samuels wrote that the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a Jewish watchdog that opposes hate anti-Semitism and hate speech propagated by defeated US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who grew up in South Africa at the height of apartheid, called on all Jews and Israelis worldwide to lay off Twitter.

Thousands of celebrities, politicians and intellectuals have already dumped Twitter, appalled by the racist messages that have flooded the social media platform as soon as Musk formalized its purchase.

Almost all of Twitter's revenue currently comes from advertising and Volkswagen is among the brands that has stopped spending with it since Musk bought the social media company.

"We are closely monitoring the situation and will decide about next steps depending on its evolvement," Europe's biggest carmaker said.

On Thursday, food manufacturer General Mills, which owns brands including Cheerios and Lucky Charms, did the same, BBC News reported.

Other brands to have paused paid activity on the platform include car firms General Motors and Audi, and drugs giant Pfizer, the Associated Press (AP) and Reuters also reported.

Musk has been looking for ways to cut costs and make money in different ways from the platform, including plans to charge a monthly subscription fee for users to be verified on the platform.

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