Paris Hilton's entertainment company is suspending an advertising campaign on X, according to CNN, expanding the list of companies fleeing the social platform after billionaire Elon Musk's recent tweet endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory.
The move by 11:11 Media to distance itself from X, formerly known as Twitter, comes only a month after the companies announced an exclusive partnership that would include live video and commerce. X CEO Linda Yaccarino in October welcomed Hilton to the "@X family," tweeting: "The queen of pop culture, music, business and TV is #Sliving on X."
CBS MoneyWatch could not immediately reach anyone at Hilton's company for comment. Bruce Gersh, 11:11's president and chief operating officer, told CNN on Tuesday that the company "made the decision to immediately pull the campaign from the platform."
The advertiser exodus from X gathered steam last week after Musk, the company's billionaire owner, last week called an antisemitic post on his social media platform "the actual truth." Other major advertisers have suspended their marketing campaigns on the site in recent days, including Apple, Disney, IBM and Lionsgate, with some pointing to a report by Media Matters detailing a rise in antisemitism on X.
Apple, IBM and Oracle are among the companies that have had their ads appear next to Nazi-themed content on X, Media Matters said in its report. X has since filed a lawsuit against the liberal advocacy group, accusing Media Matters of misrepresenting its findings in an effort to destroy the company.
The White House denounced Musk for repeating "the hideous lie behind the most fatal act of antisemitism in American history," and President Biden then posted for the first time on X rival Threads.
The uproar is not the first at X, which had already lost advertisers concerned about their brands showing up on the platform next to controversial content. Musk hired Yaccarino, a former NBC executive, to sell big brands on the idea of returning to X.
According to research firm Similarweb, as of September global web traffic to Twitter.com was down 14% from a year ago, while traffic to the ads.twitter.com portal for advertisers was down 16.5%.
Kate Gibson is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch in New York.
