There was a time when social media platforms Twitter and Facebook seemed to be the new town square — a virtual environment where people could bypass the Leftmedia and debate important issues without censorship or cancel culture.

It didn’t last long.

Soon those same platforms were being used to filter out unpopular ideas and manipulate information. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg showed his true colors when he spent nearly half a billion dollars to buy the 2020 presidential election. And as long as Twitter pushed a leftist narrative and canceled alternative views, no corporations or Democrat politicians had any complaints.

But when Elon Musk bought Twitter, later rebranding it X, and pledged to restore its original intent of free speech, the Left lost control of the narrative and the digital town square found itself under attack. A recent development on that battlefield is that of big corporations pulling their advertising money from X, ostensibly to punish Musk for his comments about the Anti-Defamation League — a left-wing Jewish civil rights organization — and for allegedly allowing hate speech on the platform.

The incident began on November 15 when an X user posted: “To the cowards hiding behind the anonymity of the internet and posting ‘Hitler was right’: You got something you want to say? Why don’t you say it to our faces.”

To which another X user replied that Jewish communities “have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them,” further noting that “western Jewish populations” are finally realizing that “those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much.”

Musk responded to that reply by posting “You have said the actual truth” and calling out companies like the Anti-Defamation League for their allegedly unjust attacks on the “majority of the West.” Later, Musk explained that he wasn’t referring to all Jewish people, but that he mainly took issue with the anti-Western ideology of the ADL.

It was too late.

Some major advertisers, including Walmart, Disney, Apple, and IBM, decided to stop advertising on X. Why? Did they have a collective attack of conscience, or were they cowed into submission by the speech-suppressing Left?

Appearing recently at The New York Times Dealbook Summit, Musk said during an interview that the boycott of X could kill the platform. At least, he said, “The whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company.”

He also told Disney CEO Bob Iger to have unnatural relations with himself. “Go f*** yourself,” Musk said. “Is that clear? I hope it is. Hey Bob, if you’re in the audience, that’s how I feel. Don’t advertise.”

As for Walmart’s decision to stop advertising on the platform, it had nothing to do with Musk’s harsh words. According to MSNBC, “While Walmart went public with the pullout on Friday, Joe Benarroch, head of operations at X, said the company has not advertised on the platform since October.” Apparently, the company didn’t like the way its ads on X have performed.

The Wall Street Journal adds, “Around the same time, left-leaning watchdog group Media Matters reported that X placed ads for certain companies next to posts supporting Nazis.” As we reported, that Media Matters claim was deeply dubious, and Musk vowed a “thermonuclear lawsuit” in response.

According to that federal lawsuit, Media Matters selectively picked X posts known to be made by those with extremist views in an effort to smear Musk as a defender of Nazi propaganda and, more importantly, to scare away advertisers.

It’s certainly interesting how the collective Left has bent over backward to defend Hamas terrorists as freedom fighters while accusing influencers like Musk of anti-Semitism. But if any leftists truly care about standing up for Israel, they ought to be consistent about it. For example, a recent survey reveals that the platform where you’re most likely to find hateful or anti-Semitic language isn’t X. Mark Zuckerberg’s Instagram and the ChiCom spyware known as TikTok are worse.

More disturbing is a bombshell that landed in the middle of this battle on Thursday. “Calling Facebook and Instagram breeding grounds for predators who target and exploit children, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez is suing the world’s largest social media company and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg,” reports The Santa Fe New Mexican.

As the New Mexican continues, “The 227-page civil lawsuit filed in state First Judicial District Court late Tuesday alleges Meta Platforms Inc. ‘directs harmful and inappropriate material’ at teens and preteens and allows adult predators to have unfettered access to them, leading to grooming and solicitation.”

If that’s not a good reason for companies to pull their advertising from Facebook and Instagram, nothing is. But it’s doubtful that these woke corporations — Disney, Apple, Walmart, and their ilk — are bothered by child sex trafficking when they’re obsessed with X, with Elon Musk, and with free speech.