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.
    • Vant@lemm.ee
      15·
      11 months ago

      They’ve known all along they just didn’t care until it threatened their own reputations. Musk really shit the bed this time.

      • kautau@lemmy.world
        7·
        11 months ago

        “Our AI data science projections state we won’t lose money until musk really gets into white supremacy, so let’s keep those ads pumping until that happens.”

          • evranch@lemmy.ca
            5·
            11 months ago

            Blockchain is yesterday’s buzzword, it would just take up space where you could mention AI again. AI, the future of business! Powered by AI!

            • kautau@lemmy.world
              1·
              11 months ago

              The scary part though is blockchain is actually a buzzword when it comes to profiting within a business. Having an impermeable ledger that’s computationally expensive really doesn’t further profits outside of being a shitty product that can be offered.

              Having an AI that can do in 5 seconds what took a set of PhD data scientists with no morals to do in 5 weeks is more frightening. (Yes I know the data scientists are the ones now training and using the AI)

              Immediate pricing model to determine maximum profit every few seconds based on aggregate sales, market conditions, and demographic targeting? Check

              Determining minimum viable wages and benefits to keep employee retention while continuing to grow profits? Check

              Figuring out every tax and legal loophole to avoid paying taxes by going through trillions of transactions? Check

              Determining “maximum cost of human life” or “maximum environmental impact” that won’t be detrimental to profits? Check

              Planning product launches specifically around planned obsolescence? Check

              Sabotaging competitors through social media and other means? Check

              The list goes on and on, but AI is by no means a buzzword in business circles. It is a way to hyper-accelerate capitalism.

              The big investors in AI don’t give a shit whether or not it makes for a good chatbot. They want a drop-in CEO that can accelerate quarterly profits per compute cycle.

    • s_s@lemmy.one
      2·
      11 months ago

      Apple still has no problem pumping this to hundreds of millions of people through their app store for a 30% cut.

      Do they really care?

      Pull the app.

    • RickRussell_CA@lemmy.worldEnglish
      141·
      11 months 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
        9·
        11 months 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
          2·
          11 months ago

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

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          11 months 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
        2·
        11 months 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·
          11 months 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.

  • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
    112·
    11 months ago

    X I don’t care about.

    Not seeing this shit in my feed constantly, now that would be nice.

      • evranch@lemmy.ca
        61·
        11 months 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…

          • Nelots@lemm.eeEnglish
            2·
            11 months 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
                11·
                11 months 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.

  • Immersive_Matthew@sh.itjust.works
    101·
    11 months ago

    Time to create that Mastodon account you have been meaning to, the dual post for a while until your network is established and then delete X.

    • blind3rdeye@lemm.ee
      8·
      11 months 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
        21·
        11 months ago

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

  • blackbrook@mander.xyz
    5·
    11 months 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…

  • fosforus@sopuli.xyz
    5·
    11 months ago

    Hasn’t he blurted out stupid stuff his whole career without it causing any negative effects? Seems like that’s his thing and it seems like it’s been working for him pretty well. At least until now.

    • quo@feddit.uk
      4·
      11 months ago

      I don’t think he’s ever said something this bad before.

      Blaming Jewish people by name, directly, without any dog whistles or implicit subtext is new.

      • fosforus@sopuli.xyz
        1·
        11 months ago

        Did it happen like that?

        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.”

        To me this sounds more like not properly thinking about it while doomscrolling Twitter. I think Musk is all about not thinking about what he’s doing.

  • eestileib@sh.itjust.works
    41·
    11 months ago

    You think Saudi Arabia is just going to let their toy collapse? They shit the money it takes to run that site every day.

    • hitmyspot@aussie.zone
      1·
      11 months ago

      Great. Let them continue to waste their money as they sink into irrelevance in a petrochemicals less dependent world.

      They should put that money into r&d and education instead. They won’t, though. They will build vanity projects.

    • BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works
      2·
      11 months 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.