Walmart joins the marketers who are boycotting Elon Musk's X

Walmart joined other firms in discontinuing their advertising on Elon Musk's X, which was formerly Twitter. Experts cautioned that X may face immediate turmoil as a result of advertisers' outrage against Musk's activities. Big businesses like as Disney and IBM have already withdrawn, which might result in X losing out on corporate and political ad money.

Notably, while Walmart's move to pull off ads on X was made public on December 1, Joe Benarroch, the head of operations at X said the company had not placed ads on the platform since October, instead focusing on organic engagement within its community of over one million members on X.

“Walmart has a wonderful community of more than a million people on X, and with half a billion people on X, every year the platform experiences 15 billion impressions about the holidays alone with more than 50% of X users doing most or all of their shopping online," Benarroch said in a statement.

Ad industry experts warn of impending turmoil for social media company X as more advertisers consider deserting the platform, following a cascade of events triggered by its billionaire owner Elon Musk's recent actions, as per a news report. 

Walt Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery took decisive steps in November by halting advertising efforts on X. The move came in response to Musk endorsing an antisemitic post. The backlash was followed by Musk apologising.

Major corporations such as Apple, IBM, Sony, Disney, Comcast (including NBC Universal), and Paramount, who have pulled out, collectively constituted 7 percent of the total US ad spend on X until October this year, as indicated by Sensor Tower data. Now, the platform faces the alarming reality of losing not just corporate advertisers but also potential revenue from political candidates, a stream that re-emerged after X lifted its ban on political ads.