Notoriously left-wing ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s has declared a halt to all paid advertising on Elon Musk’s Twitter. In a statement, the company said, “Musk and Twitter’s toxicity and tacit endorsement of hate and violence goes against everything our company stands for. Twitter must act today to end the extremist and violent content on the platform. Until that happens, Ben & Jerry’s will spend no money with Twitter and we call on all businesses and partners to do the same.”
The Wrap reports that leftist ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s has announced a ban on all paid advertising on Twitter over growing concerns about online “hate speech.” This choice was made in direct response to what the company views as an alarming rise in “hate speech” on the website, including contentious remarks made by Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter.
Elon Musk (Win McNamee/Getty Images; BNN)
“Hate speech is up dramatically while content moderation has become all but non-existent,” the company said in a statement. “In addition to the changes on the platform that have led to an increase in hate speech, Musk himself has doubled down on dangerous anti-democratic lies and white nationalist hate speech.”
Following that, Ben & Jerry’s described Twitter as a “threatening and even dangerous” space for a number of groups, including women, Jews and Muslims. The business urged Twitter to take action right away against violent and extremist content and urged other companies to take a similar stance.
“Musk and Twitter’s toxicity and tacit endorsement of hate and violence goes against everything our company stands for,” the post concludes. “Twitter must act today to end the extremist and violent content on the platform. Until that happens, Ben & Jerry’s will spend no money with Twitter and we call on all businesses and partners to do the same.”
Ben & Jerry’s will continue to use its Twitter account to interact with its community despite its decision to stop using paid advertising. However, the company stated that depending on how the Twitter toxicity problem develops, it may reevaluate this stance.
Following Musk’s takeover of Twitter, Ben & Jerry’s has joined a growing list of businesses that have stopped running advertisements on the platform. Spending in the media industry has experienced noticeable swings, with major companies like HBO, NBCUniversal, and Netflix significantly reducing their spending on the platform. All eyes are now on Linda Yaccarino, the new CEO of Twitter, a former sales executive for NBCU who recently made the switch to the social media giant.
Read more at The Wrap here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan
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