• by Maarten Albarda , Featured Contributor, November 22, 2024

X is never far from the headlines. Over the last week, there have been reports of advertisers coming back. According to Adweek, returning advertisers include Comcast, IBM, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Lionsgate Entertainment. Apparently, the thinking is that by being on the platform, Elon Musk will think favorably about these brands as he wields his powers as the de facto ruler of the soon to be implemented Department Of Government Efficiency.

I would like to publicly call out these brands as cynical opportunists. I get that they try to seek favor because they either have large government contracts or are dependent on government policy with regard to their distribution and profits. But to first withdraw because the environment is too toxic and controversial, and to then just as easily abandon these principles for favor with the new powers that be, shows these company’s true colors and complete lack of a moral compass.

X has not changed over the last few months. It still allows unfiltered and mostly non-policed hate speech, bullying, discriminatory content and other insulting posts.

The first ad the platform showed me today was from MaximusTribe, an erectile dysfunction product showcasing a fierce standing cactus, with the text “Perform better – from the gym to the bedroom. Feel this unique combination of PDE5 inhibitors improve blood flow for up to 24 hours.” Given my age group, I know why I am being targeted.

A few scrolls below that, the minister of DOGE himself posts, “Just learned tonight at Mar-a-Lago that Jeff Bezos was telling everyone that @realDonaldTrump would lose for sure, so they should sell all their Tesla and SpaceX stock.” Underneath it was a bot-created warning that, according to Jeff Bezos himself, this message was completely false. After about a minute, this warning disappeared.

I shall spare you the rest of the infinite scroll, but it continues in a he said/she said swamp of messages about political appointments, I-told-you-so victory laps about Matt Gaetz, accusations about the mainstream media character-murdering perfectly good candidates -- oh, and Anheuser-Busch asking which Budweiser bottle design over the ages we like the best.

If that's not enough proof that the X advertising environment is utterly devoid of any quality, unless you want to target doom-scrolling trolls on either side of the great divide that is America’s political spectrum, then the Minister of DOGE has just amended his lawsuit against those advertisers who follow common sense and stay away from the sickening and pointless advertising opportunity that X presents.

MediaPost’s Wendy Davis reported on Nov. 20 that “The original suit also alleged that Danish energy company Ørsted, food companies Unilever and Mars, and healthcare company CVS Health violated antitrust law by conspiring to deprive X of ad revenue. The main difference between the original and amended complaints is that the newer version also names Twitch as a defendant.”  Yes, Twitch is owned by Amazon. Coincidence?

I personally can’t wait for this lawsuit to go to court. I really want to see what the arguments are that would convince a jury that, somehow, the use of common sense and freedom of choice does not apply when advertisers, who are privately held entities, decide that thanks-but-no-thanks, we do not want to be seen anywhere near falsehoods, hate speech, spam, misogynist, discriminatory or otherwise objectionable content. I think Jeff Bezos should commission a documentary or courtroom drama show about the suit for Prime Video.