Elon Musk's X reportedly lost Hyundai as the automaking giant paused its advertising on the platform due to "brand safety" issues after pro-Nazi and antisemitic content appeared alongside the company's ads.
Freelance writer Nancy Levine Stearns shared a screenshot of the ad that appeared in the feed of an X user known for posting Holocaust denial and antisemitic sentiments.
According to Joe Benarroch, the head of X business operations, the ad appeared next to a post titled "Violent Event Denial" about the Holocaust.
(Photo: ALAIN JOCARD/AFP via Getty Images) (COMBO)
The current Hyundai ad in question appeared on the profile of a user who has championed Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Before Thursday's ban, the account claimed to be headquartered in Australia and had almost 55,000 followers, although it was posting under a pseudonym.
The account was eventually suspended because its bio contained antisemitic stereotypes.
Hyundai's Fault
According to Benarroch, the Hyundai campaign was self-serve, without the assistance of X's direct sales staff.
Regrettably, Brunswick's agency did not activate the Brand Safety settings controls available to them. Benarroch says that X collaborated with Brunswick to improve the ad settings.
While Hyundai's advertisements displayed alongside harmful content resulted from a mistake made by the automaker's advertising agency, another X advertiser, IQAir, claimed it was altering its platform settings when NBC News reportedly discovered one of their ads running alongside Holocaust denial.
IQAir, a Swiss business that manufactures air quality equipment and software, said it was already employing X's capabilities, which allow advertisers to target specific populations while excluding others.
X and Antisemitic Content
This is not the first time X has lost advertisers on the platform due to antisemitic content. Last November, approximately 200 firms indicated that they had "fully paused" their advertisements on the platform for the same reason.
Musk supported an anti-Semitic message post on X on November 15 of last year that stated that the conspiracy theory of Jews supporting the inflow of minorities to supplant white populations was "the actual truth."
This caused several companies, notably Walt Disney and Warner Bros Discovery, to suspend advertising on the platform once known as Twitter.
Following that, X sued media watchdog group Media Matters, claiming that the organization defamed the platform in a report suggesting that adverts for significant corporations like Apple and Oracle appeared alongside comments supporting Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party.
Coca-Cola, Jack in the Box, and Netflix halted some of their advertising during that time. According to X, Netflix's stalled ads were worth almost $3 million. Amazon, Coca-Cola, and Microsoft have suspended or considered stopping their social media marketing.
