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The exodus from X is bleeding beyond just major advertisers. 

In recent days, a number of prominent media brands have not only paused their paid marketing campaigns on the embattled Elon Musk-owned social platform, but have ceased posting on it altogether, going silent on the once essential site that sought to be the world's "digital town square."

The flagship accounts belonging to Disney, Paramount, Lionsgate, Sony Pictures, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery have not posted on the platform in roughly 10 days, following Musk's disturbing endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory, which he still has not apologized for.

None of the studios commented on the record when I reached out for comment. But people familiar with the social media strategies of Paramount and WBD (CNN's parent) confirmed under the condition of anonymity that it's no coincidence: the companies have made the active decision to stop posting under certain handles on X due to concerns, including brand safety.

The blackout on X extends beyond these companies' corporate accounts, in some cases. For instance, the most high profile accounts affiliated with Disney have gone dark on X, such as @StarWars, @Pixar, and @MarvelStudios, which were previously posting multiple times a day on the platform to their millions of followers. Instead, these brands have switched over to the Meta-owned rival Threads, where they have started actively posting.

For instance, when "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" on Monday shared the news that host Stephen Colbert would be off the air this week due to appendicitis (see below for more on that), the program did so on Threads. Prior to Musk's backing of an antisemitic post, Colbert's show, however, was primarily active on X, regularly posting videos and other content. Now, the inverse is true.

When reached for comment on Monday, a representative for X did not directly address questions on the loss of the media behemoths on the platform, which must be setting off alarm bells inside the social media company. It is already quite bad for the struggling company to be starved of advertising revenue. It's even worse if it is also starved of content, particularly from household entities that have helped make the platform the center of real-time discussion for years.

It is, of course, possible that these companies will reverse course down the road and resume posting and even advertising on the platform. It would not be the first time that has happened after advertisers have fled an outlet en masse. But it's also possible that won't happen.

With Musk at the helm of the platform for the foreseeable future overseeing the critical decisions that have led to a surge in hate speech (while also personally contributing himself to the awful rhetoric), the risk versus reward calculus on whether to engage with the company has taken a sharp nosedive. The situation is not dissimilar to when Tucker Carlson permanently chased most advertisers away from Fox News' 8pm hour during his time at the network.

And if more companies and other notable figures abandon Musk's platform for other social networks, it will extinguish the allure it once had, providing yet another reason for average users to ditch the troubled platform.

"Every day, more brands are waking up to the reality that Twitter is dead and X is a cesspool," Platformer's Casey Newton told me. "The global town square is now dispersed across many different platforms, and increasingly the most relevant conversations are taking place elsewhere."

———  BELOW THE FOLD  ———

Russia's Revenge: Russia's crusade against a free press continues to rage on. The Vladimir Putin-led government has now opened a criminal case against Masha Gessen, a renowned journalist whose reporting for The New Yorker has been critical of the Kremlin, for allegedly spreading "false information" about Russia's war on Ukraine. "The chances that I will ever be able to go back to Russia — I’m 56 years old — are pretty slim," Gessen told The WaPo's Mary Ilyushina. "That has a significant impact on my life and at some point, my journalism." New Yorker Editor-In-Chief David Remnick said in a statement, "These charges are baseless and absurd, and The New Yorker stands with Masha Gessen." Ilyushina has more here.

► It's not just Gessen. The Kremlin also placed Andy Stone, arguably Meta's most public facing spokesperson, on its wanted list.

Sports Automated: Yikes! Sports Illustrated has some serious mud on its face. The once-celebrated legacy magazine said on Monday that it had deleted several articles from its website after a report from Futurism's Maggie Harrison found that the pieces were published under fake author names and using profile images generated by A.I. When Futurism asked for comment, Harrison said Sports Illustrated deleted the stories without explanation. After Futurism published its report, The Arena Group, which operates Sports Illustrated, said the deleted articles were actually produced by a third-party company, AdVon Commerce. "We have learned that AdVon had writers use a pen or pseudo name in certain articles to protect author privacy — actions we don’t condone — and we are removing the content while our internal investigation continues and have since ended the partnership," an Arena Group spokesperson said. CNN's Liam Reilly has all the details here.

🔎 Zooming in: "AdVon did not respond to a CNN request for comment. But the questions raised Monday marked the second time in as many months that AdVon has found itself at the center of an A.I. publishing controversy," Reilly noted. "In October, Gannett-owned Reviewed came under fire following reports it had used A.I. to produce stories. A similar investigation followed: The website contained several stories written by authors who couldn't be found online and whose colleagues couldn’t confirm their existence. But Gannett denied the articles had been written with the use of A.I."

Rice to Be Released? Here's an example that shows the power of good journalism: In 2022, in a cover story for The Atlantic, Jake Tapper highlighted the case of C.J. Rice, a teenager wrongfully sentenced to prison for a crime he insists he didn't commit. The case never received the attention it deserved, but following Tapper's cover story, the wheels of justice started turning. On Monday, Tapper reported that Rice's conviction had been overturned and that the Philadelphia D.A. must now decide whether to retry the case or release him from custody. "Once you see the issue of incompetent counsel and what passes for our ‘justice’ system, you can’t unsee it," Tapper told us. Read his original story here.

Meta's Profit Mentality: Anyone who has ever used social media knows that it can be addicting. But now it's clear that Meta's leadership knew Instagram could be addicting, particularly for younger users. Specifically, new legal documents indicate that Meta was aware the photo/video-sharing app can "trigger intermittent dopamine releases in its young users." Meta has been accused by states attorneys general of having "profited from children's pain" by "intentionally designing its platforms with manipulative features that make children addicted to their platforms." It goes without saying that Meta has pushed back against the lawsuit. CNN's Eva Rothenberg has details.

Colbert's Close Call: There will be no new episodes of "The Late Show" this week. Host Stephen Colbert joked on Threads Monday that the cancelation was not due to a turkey overdose. "Actually, I’m recovering from surgery for a ruptured appendix," Colbert said. "I’m grateful to my doctors for their care and to Evie and the kids for putting up with me. Going forward, all emails to my appendix will be handled by my pancreas." CNN's Alli Rosenbloom has more here.

Thank you for reading! This newsletter was edited by Jon Passantino and produced with the assistance of Liam Reilly. Have feedback? Send us an email. You can follow us on Instagram, Threads, and LinkedIn. We will see you back in your inbox tomorrow.