Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, may face up to $75 million in lost advertising revenue by year’s end as companies scramble to distance their ads from pro-Nazi content, The New York Times first reported Friday.
More than 200 ad units from companies including Airbnb, Amazon, Coca-Cola and Microsoft have already discontinued or are considering doing so, according to internal company documents from X, formerly Twitter, viewed by the Times.
These would join the rapidly growing list of companies, from IBM, NBCUniversal and Apple to Fox Sports and Ubisoft, pulling their ads from the site after a report from progressive media watchdog Media Matters for America revealed that ads for major companies on X appeared next to pro-Nazi content.
“Not much we can do if advertisers boycott or reduce spend on our platform,” Musk posted on X in response to a post about low ad revenue sharing.
Musk also responded in agreement to a post that said those angry with him over low ad revenue sharing payouts “should be angry at Media Matters for its deceitful campaign against X” and at those “actively advocating for X to fail because they are motivated by their hatred of Elon Musk.”
“Those jerks are starving all the creators on our platform!” Musk replied.
The documents seen by the Times come from the platform’s sales team, and track declines in advertising for the month from companies that have already paused ads and those that might, as well as predict losses through the end of the year, according to the outlet.
More than 100 brands “fully paused” their advertising on the platform, the documents showed. Netflix halted an estimated almost $3 million in ads, Airbnb halted more than $1 million, and Uber scaled back ads worth more than $800,000, according to the Times.
Musk was accused of antisemitism earlier this month after he appeared to agree with a post on X accusing Jews of hating white people. Musk said of the claims that “nothing could be further from the truth.” X has denied Media Matters’ report and filed a lawsuit against the watchdog group on Monday.
In September, Musk publicly blamed the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish nonprofit that combats antisemitism, for the 60% plunge in advertising revenue at X since he took ownership of the platform in October 2022. Musk said at the time that the group was “trying to kill” X by “falsely accusing” him and the platform of being antisemitic.
X’s Chief Executive Officer Linda Yaccarino has also faced pressure to resign amid the advertising exodus. Yaccarino, a former NBCUniversal advertising chair, was recruited to helm the company in June to help lure back advertisers who fled the platform after Musk’s acquisition.
The platform is reportedly valued at $19 billion, according to Fortune Magazine, well below the $44 billion Musk paid when he acquired the company.
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