Twitter is running ads for companies like Nokia, He Wall Street Journaland Mailchimp along with tweets from Holocaust deniers, according to a report by the nonprofit watchdog group Media Matters for America.
Media Matters reviewed five Twitter accounts belonging to neo-Nazis, anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers and found that ads from prominent companies were placed alongside the accounts’ tweets. The reach of the five Twitter accounts, which include writers, a “pseudo-academic organization” and white nationalist YouTubers, ranges from a couple thousand followers to tens of thousands.
All five accounts are subscribed to Twitter Blue, the subscription service that has become a top priority for Elon Musk since he took over the company. Earlier this month, Musk tweeted that Blue subscribers would get a share of the revenue for ads placed under their tweets.
The Media Matters report is the second report released this week about ads appearing alongside problematic content on Twitter.
A study since Thursday by the Center to Counter Digital Hate (CCDH) found that Twitter was profiting from ads placed next to accounts that were previously banned but reinstated under Musk’s ownership of the platform. CCHR estimated that Twitter’s earnings from ads amount to up to $19 million a year from a selection of 10 such accounts, including misogynistic influencer Andrew Tate, far-right influencer Baked Alaska, and Andrew Anglin, founder of the site. neo-Nazi website The Daily. stormer. CCHR used a combination of tweet impressions, ad frequency, and data from analytics firm Brandwatch to estimate ad revenue for the 10 accounts.
The companies whose ads appeared alongside the reinstated accounts included Apple TV, Amazon, the NFL and Fiverr, which said it would stop advertising on Twitter. according the washington post.
A key concern advertisers had after Musk took over Twitter was that the billionaire’s focus on “free speech” would make the platform inhospitable to brands. Last fall, after the Musk acquisition was finalized, several of the largest ad agencies advised their clients to stop spending on Twitter, saying it was “high risk.”
