Since the terrorist organization Hamas’ attack on Israel, X (formerly Twitter) has placed ads for MLB, the NFL, and the Pittsburgh Steelers on verified antisemitic accounts that collectively have over one million followers. Those accounts are run by people who have denied the Holocaust, attacked Judaism as “by far the most disgusting religion” and “a death cult built on the blood of murdered babies,” and wondered, “Why are we supposed to care about the ethnic cleansing of Jews when you couldn't care less about the ethnic cleansing of whites?”
X’s placement of ads on those virulently antisemitic accounts is further confirmation that CEO Linda Yaccarino’s promises to advertisers about brand safety are empty. In the midst of advertisers’ concerns, she recently said that her company has been “demonstrating its absolute commitment to combating antisemitism on the platform” and that “antisemitism is evil and X will always work to fight it on our platform.”
But that’s not been the case: Observers have documented that antisemitism is rampant on X and furthered, in part, by owner Elon Musk’s own behavior. Media Matters has also shown that X has placed ads for brands directly on pro-Hitler, Holocaust denial, white nationalist, pro-violence, and neo-Nazi accounts. Ads have also appeared next to unhinged conspiracy theories about Jewish people and 9/11.
Advertisers are also supporting a platform that’s used for graphic content and violent propaganda. The New York Times reported that “violent videos and graphic images have flooded social media” after Hamas attacked Israel and “many of the posts have been seeded by Hamas to terrorize civilians and take advantage of the lack of content moderation on some social media sites — particularly X and Telegram — according to a Hamas official and social media experts interviewed by The New York Times.”
After X was criticized for putting ads for the NFL on prominent white nationalist accounts, NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy said, in part, that “as soon as this was brought to our attention, we immediately expressed our concerns to X to understand and rectify the issue.”
Media Matters has now found that the issue has clearly not been rectified for the NFL. And the problem extends and will undoubtedly continue to extend to other advertisers who choose to trust Yaccarino and X’s platitudes.
We examined the verified accounts of Lucas Gage, E. Michael Jones, Stew Peters, Andrew Torba, and Way of the World — all of which have at least 50,000 followers and regularly use X to engage in antisemitism. Among the ads appearing on these accounts included those for MLB, the NFL, and the Pittsburgh Steelers. As verified accounts with such large followings, these figures could theoretically receive revenue from those ads under the social platform’s revenue sharing program. (At least one of the accounts has received money through the program.)
In the case of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the team’s ads were paired with promotions for either BetMGM or Little Caesars.
X claims that it does not allow “the dehumanization of a group of people based on their religion” or a suite of other identities, but it still hasn’t suspended these accounts.
Here are a few examples of how those sports ads appear next to harmful content:
