Warner Bros Discovery has joined the growing list of companies that have suspended advertising on the Elon Musk-owned social media platform formerly known as Twitter, or X. The company is putting its ad spending on hold for the time being, a spokesperson told Deadline. The move comes after a report that found X was letting ads from IBM, Apple, Oracle, and NBCUniversal (parent of CNN) appear next to pro-Nazi content on the platform. Several other advertisers have also paused their ad spending, including Axios, which first reported the news.
The ad pauses suggest that there’s a significant advertiser backlash against X after its owner, billionaire Elon Musk, publicly backed an antisemitic conspiracy theory that’s popular among white supremacists. Earlier this week, Musk endorsed a post on X that echoed the Great Replacement Theory, which holds that Jews are responsible for driving non-whites into the United States to replace them. It’s a conspiracy theory that has led to real-world violence, such as the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue massacre and the 2022 Buffalo supermarket mass shooting.
A spokesman for Lionsgate said the film and TV company was “taking steps to protect our brand and our customers.” The company’s decision follows a similar move from Apple, one of X’s biggest advertisers. Apple stopped putting its ads on X on Thursday in response to a report from liberal watchdog Media Matters that found ads for both companies appeared alongside hate speech. The ad boycotts by big brands are another setback for X, which has struggled to win back trust since the site was renamed and revamped last year.
The ad pullback is particularly damaging for X because most of its revenue comes from ads, according to someone familiar. The person added that ad revenues have already begun to dry up, and it’s unclear how long the platform can survive without significant investments from other advertisers.
X is working on fixing the issue, but it needs to be clarified when ad placements will return to normal. The ad boycotts aren’t the first to hit the platform, which has been struggling with user complaints about its censorship policies. X has apologized for the problems and promised to review its policies and practices.
The company rolled out a new version of its app this week, meant to address some issues, but critics say it still allows some extremist content to spread unchecked. In addition to bringing in a team of human moderators, X has introduced new tools for reporting offensive material and has promised to remove some of the most dangerous accounts on its network. The company has also announced a new policy that would punish users for calling for violence or using racist language. The company hasn’t disclosed how many people have been suspended or removed from the platform in connection with that policy, but it said a “substantial” number of accounts have been taken down in recent weeks.