news
31 Aug 2024
Paid advertisements for major organizations affiliated with both the Republican and Democratic parties and some of their biggest names have appeared under pro-Nazi and racist posts shared on Elon Musk's social media platform X, formerly Twitter, a CBS News investigation has found.
Advertisements for the Senate Republicans' campaign arm, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and the right-wing Heritage Foundation think tank have appeared recently under racist or pro-Nazi posts from verified accounts on X.
Last week, the World Bank ceased all paid advertising on X after a CBS News investigation found a promoted advertisement from the organization showed up under a racist post from an account that prolifically posts pro-Nazi and white nationalist content. The World Bank made the decision to remove all paid advertising on X, calling the incident "entirely unacceptable," after a promoted advertisement under a racist post was flagged to the organization by CBS News.
One of the U.S. political ads found by CBS News was under a post by a verified account that prolifically posts pro-Nazi and racist content. The account, which has nearly 100,000 followers, shared a picture of Hitler rejecting a Star of David being held by an arm draped in a striped sleeve.
Under the post, an ad appeared for the National Republican Senatorial Committee directing users to donate through WinRed, the prominent conservative online fundraising platform used by many GOP candidates and groups, including GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump's campaign and the Republican National Committee.
The advertisement showed an image of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio with the caption saying it was "paid for by the NRSC."
The NRSC is the chief fundraising committee dedicated to getting Republican Party candidates elected to the U.S. Senate. Multiple other promoted advertisements directing users to WinRed were posted under similar content. CBS News is not publicly identifying the accounts spreading racist content on X.
CBS News asked the NRSC and WinRed for comment about the placement of the fundraising ads on X. In response to questions about the ads on X, NRSC spokesman Mike Berg wrote in a post on the platform that CBS News was, "trying to pressure advertisers to stop spending money on X by associating advertisers and [Musk] with white nationalists," which he called "patently absurd."
Promoted advertisements for the congressional campaign of Jerrad Christan, the Democratic candidate for Ohio's 12th district, also appeared under antisemitic posts. The seat is currently held by Republican Troy Balderson.
A post by a verified account with 150,000 followers showed a man with a boot on his neck underneath the Statue of Liberty. The text on the image read, "Land of Freedom. Where one is ruled by the Jews, Freedom is only an empty dream."
Christian's campaign ad appeared under the image with a link that redirected readers to ActBlue, a fundraising platform used widely by Democratic campaigns.
Under another post by the same account, CBS News found an ad for the National Republican Senatorial Committee - a paid advertisement from Mary Trump's political action committee, the Democracy Defense Fund, with a link to the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue. Mary Trump, the former U.S. president's niece, has spoken out against her uncle for years.
The post in question depicted an Orthodox Jewish man dancing on a gravesite with the caption: "Your reminder to NOT die for shlomo. He'll dance on your graves."
The PAC advertisement under the post had an image of Mary Trump with a request to donate money to help "defeat Donald, defend the Senate, and flip the House."
CBS News has sought comment from the Jerrad Christian for Congress campaign and Mary Trump's PAC on the placement of the organizations' ads.
Since Musk's October 2022 takeover of what was then Twitter, he has dismantled safeguards on the platform. That includes dramatic changes to the verification system and the removal of its Trust and Safety advisory group, as well as changes to broader content moderation and hate speech enforcement on X.
In its place, Musk has created a system in which X's algorithms favor accounts that pay for the platform's blue check subscription service. According to X's own marketing for its verification service, X premium offers "reply prioritization" for all subscribers.
The changes also enable influencers who buy into the verification subscription program to monetize their content. Subscribers are eligible to receive a share of advertising revenue for their content if they "have at least 5M organic impressions on cumulative posts within the last 3 months" and "have at least 500 followers."
Under X's terms of use, accounts can do this without publicly disclosing their identity, provided the account holder privately discloses their ID to the platform.
"X allows the use of pseudonymous accounts, meaning an account's profile is not required to use the name or image of the account owner. Accounts that appear similar to others on X are not in violation of this policy, so long as their purpose is not to deceive or manipulate others," according to the platform's guidelines.
A majority of the verified X accounts reviewed by CBS News that have political advertising under their content would, according to the company's own guidelines, qualify for a share of its ad revenue under the policy.
Last week, the World Bank ceased all paid advertising on X after a CBS News investigation found a promoted advertisement from the organization showed up under a racist post from an account that prolifically posts pro-Nazi and white nationalist content.
Sander van der Linden, a professor of social psychology at the University of Cambridge who studies online misinformation, told CBS News on Friday that X's algorithms may be determining where to place advertisements based on which accounts are getting the most engagement.
"When they've [X] had problems with companies like IBM or Disney where they had complained that their ads were appearing next to Nazi content, these Nazi accounts were getting millions of impressions," van der Linden said. "I'm assuming what's happening there is that the algorithm is recommending to place the ads next to content that's getting a lot of engagement to try to maximize reach."
Van der Linden has said that since Musk's takeover of the social media platform in 2022, the removal of content moderation measures has led to an explosion in hate speech content.
"He [Musk] doesn't have the tools to moderate, down rank and demonetize that content," van der Linden told CBS News. "Musk has claimed that hate speech doesn't get any ad revenue… but I think the fact of the matter is that there's so much of it now that actually I haven't seen any evidence that would suggest that people can't profit off it."
CBS News has repeatedly asked X whether the accounts flagged as part of its investigation are profiting from sharing pro-Nazi and racist content, and about the placement of advertising on its platform. There had been no reply from the company as of the time of publication.
While CBS News found advertisements from groups affiliated with both main U.S. political parties, far fewer Democratic political ads than Republican ads appeared under such racist content.
One post from a verified account with more than 160,000 followers showed an image of an animated superhero with the caption: "antisemites will save the world."
A promoted advertisement for the NRSC came up under that post with a link guiding readers to donate and an image of Mr. Trump, with the caption: "Is the Media fair to Trump?"
In total, CBS News found political fundraising advertisements promoting GOP groups and candidates under at least 10 different posts from accounts known to promote pro-Nazi and racist content.
Advertisements for the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank have also appeared under an antisemitic post from an account known to share pro-Nazi content. The account in question has more than 150,000 followers. CBS News has asked The Heritage Foundation to comment on the placement of its advertisements on X.