With brief, occasional, italicized and sometimes gratuitous commentary…
• From the New York Times:
"Less than 24 hours after Elon Musk endorsed an antisemitic post on X as 'the actual truth' of what Jewish people were doing, IBM paused its advertising on the social media platform as X’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, and others at the company scrambled Thursday to contain the fallout.
"X employees said Thursday that they had gotten calls from advertisers wondering why Musk was making comments seen as antisemitic and why their ads were showing up next to white nationalist and Nazi content, according to internal messages that were viewed by the New York Times. IBM cut off about $1 million in advertising spending that it had committed to the platform for the last three months of the year, the messages said.
"In a note to employees Thursday morning, Yaccarino said that 'X is a platform for everyone' and that 'discrimination by everyone should STOP across the board.' She said the company had been clear about its work to fight antisemitism and discrimination, and later shared a similar message on X.
"In a statement, IBM said it 'has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation'."
Let's start here. Companies using X as a marketing tool may want to rethink their presence and investment in the platform, lest they be associated with the kind fo excrement that regularly gets posted there.
I think I used the word "cesspool" to describe X earlier this week, and it seems that this may have been an understatement - the the person driving it down is the clown who owns it. I'm done with X - didn't use it much anyway, except to post MNB headlines. My leaving X won't have much impact, but I'll sleep better at night knowing that I in no way am supporting the swill that Musk likes to put out there. He is doing more than just contributing to the hatred and intolerance that typifies the public discourse - he is helping to fuel and shape it. He may be a world-class innovator and inventor, but he's also a world class wannabe despot. To hell with him.
• The Save Mart Companies said this week that it has contracted with DoorDash "to bring Save Mart, Lucky, and FoodMaxx locations to the DoorDash Marketplace … consumers across California and Nevada can access Save Mart, Lucky, and FoodMaxx on DoorDash to get groceries delivered the same day in under an hour, on average*, directly to their door.
“We are excited to extend the reach and accessibility of our fresh quality offerings, local favorites, and everyday essentials with DoorDash to strengthen our commitment of providing grocery solutions for busy people and families seeking convenience and value,” said Tamara Pattison, senior vice president, Chief Digital Officer at The Save Mart Companies, in a prepared statement. “Additionally, customers can receive up to 30% off delivery orders at Save Mart, Lucky, and FoodMaxx stores from November 17, 2023 to November 23, 2023 – just in time for even greater savings for their Thanksgiving celebrations.”
• From CNBC:
"A little over a month after launch, Amazon on Thursday announced its pair of prototype internet satellites were fully successfully in operations and testing … Project Kuiper is Amazon’s plan to build a network of 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit to provide high-speed internet access anywhere in the world. The company plans to invest upwards of $10 billion to build Kuiper and recently broke ground on a $120 million pre-launch processing facility in Florida.
"With the prototypes’ testing in space now complete … Amazon plans to begin building the first production Kuiper satellites in December and launch the first satellites for its network in the “latter part of the first half” of 2024."
