Ubisoft has confirmed to PCGamer and Axios that it has paused advertising on the website, possibly making it the first video game publisher to do so. While Ubisoft didn’t elaborate on its reasoning behind the decision, X’s advertisers have been suspending their advertising activities on the social network after Musk supported an antisemitic tweet and Media Matters published a research showing brands’ advertisements next to Nazi content.
IBM, Apple, Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros, Sony and Comcast have all paused their advertising on X. Lionsgate pulled its ads, as well, specifically citing Musk’s tweet as the cause. Axios says Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR ad campaign was still showing up for X users as recently as Monday morning, and it’s unclear if it stopped advertising on the social network before or after Linda Yaccarino published a statement calling Media Matters’ report “misleading and manipulated.”
X’s CEO issued a call for users and advertisers to “stand with X,” claiming that “not a single authentic user on [the website] saw IBM’s, Comcast’s, or Oracle’s ads next to the content in Media Matters’’ article.” Shortly after that, X officially filed a lawsuit against the media watchdog, accusing it of “knowingly and maliciously manufactur[ing] side-by-side images depicting advertisers’ posts on X Corp.’s social media platform beside Neo-Nazi and white national fringe content.”
In its complaint, X explained that Media Matters had to create the right conditions, which included following accounts that post fringe Neo-Nazi and white nationalist content, in order to see ads right next to antisemitic posts.
Media Matters called the lawsuit “frivolous” and an attempt to “bully X’s critics into silence” in a statement . The organization also told us that it “stands behind its reporting and looks forward to winning in court.”
