Aldi draws drastic consequences after shitstorm on X
With the takeover by Elon Musk, Twitter is not only changing its name to X. The company is slimming down in terms of personnel and is slowing down considerably in its approach to hate comments. For Aldi, this is a reason to avoid the short message service in future.
According to a newspaper report, the discounter Aldi Nord will completely abandon the short message service X at the beginning of 2024. The move is necessary because X no longer moderates discussions sufficiently, Aldi Nord told Handelsblatt.
When the company had a dark-skinned model demonstrate the Christmas range in a post at the beginning of November, hundreds of users reacted with racist comments. The company criticized X for hardly taking any action against this - and initially restricted the comments function. Now the company is turning away from the platform altogether. Aldi Nord has already stopped advertising on X, formerly Twitter, a year ago.
Like Aldi Nord, more and more advertisers from Germany are also turning away from X, as a survey by Handelsblatt among the 40 DAX companies and the 20 largest advertisers from Germany shows. At least eight DAX companies have stopped their paid advertising on X, including BASF, Covestro, Mercedes and Siemens Energy. Five others suspended advertising a year ago, including Volkswagen, Porsche, Siemens and RWE. 13 companies had already stopped advertising before the takeover by Tesla boss Elon Musk. A total of 28 DAX companies took part in the Handelsblatt survey.
International corporations such as Apple, IBM and Disney have also recently turned their backs on the short message service. The main argument is similar everywhere: since Tesla boss Elon Musk took over the platform just over a year ago, companies have feared for their brand.
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Aldi Nord's decision to abandon X at the beginning of 2024 is not an isolated incident, as many other German advertisers, such as BASF, Covestro, and Volkswagen, have also stopped advertising on the platform due to insufficient moderation of hate comments.
Despite Elon Musk's takeover of X and its subsequent name change, Aldi remains cautious about using the platform for fear of negative associations and potential brand damage.
Source: www.ntv.de
