Companies advertising on X face having their posts appear alongside anti-Muslim hate and far-right misinformation, according to a new report.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) said brands including GlaxoSmithKline and Betfred as well as organisations like the BMA and IOC recently had ads appear next to activists ‘pushing lies and hate in the wake of the Southport attack’.
These include misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, ex-actor Laurence Fox, leaders of the far-right Britain First party Paul Golding and Ashlea Simon, and Christian commentator Calvin Robinson.
All five activists had various ads appear after their posts, despite spouting misleading info or inflammatory opinions in the wake of the Southport attack.
Andrew Tate had called the alleged killer an ‘illegal migrant’, while Paul Golding claimed the suspect was a ‘migrant’ and Ashlea Simon said the attack was something ‘Islamists do’. Meanwhile pals Laurence Fox and Calvin Robinson both agreed that Islam should be ‘removed’ from the UK.
This did not stop Musk’s platform from utilising their large follower counts to help the adverts gain views or ‘impressions’ however, leading CCHD to say the site was ‘willing to profit from hate and lies’.
Bookmaker Betfred had a promotional post about responsible gambling appear next to an inflammatory post by the co-leader of far-right Britain First
The IOC also had a post about the Olympic ‘culture of peace’ placed alongside anti-Islam vitriol from the Britain First co-leader
Musk has been accused of buying Twitter in order to force the world to listen to his views
Imran Ahmed, CEO & Founder of the CCDH said: ‘Elon Musk‘s X played a significant role in these riots, with algorithms turbocharging the spread of lies spread by bad actors he let back onto the platform, after the previous owners banned them for spreading hate and lies.
‘The truth is that Musk’s platform is willing to profit from hate and lies because it’s desperate for cash, losing hundreds of millions of dollars last year as it struggles to keep up with debt repayments.
‘It will carry on pumping out hate and lies for profit until regulators step in, hold them responsible and make it more expensive to harm our societies in this way.’
A BMA spokesman said: ‘We are extremely concerned to see an advert for the BMA on X that is adjacent to content of this nature and we are grateful to the Times for bringing it to our attention.
‘It is utterly deplorable that content of this type is allowed on X at all. The BMA has conditions, such as political exclusions, applied to its advertising on social media sites and it is clearly inappropriate for an advert for the BMA to be published alongside this post.
Andrew Tate is well-known for spreading hate online and is accused of serious crimes in Romania
Laurence Fox wrote ‘Islam needs to be removed from Britain’ and declared war on the PM
Britain First co-leader Paul Golding recently posted about a ‘barbarian migrant’
Britain First co-leader Ashlea Simon thinks the UK will ‘resemble Iran in a few short years’
Ex-GB News commentator Calvin Robinson said ‘Islam is evil’ on his controversial X profile
‘The BMA stands up strongly against racism, fascism and antisemitism in all their forms – and we will be urgently reviewing our established advertising protocols with X to make sure they are as robust as they can be and this situation is not repeated.’
An eToro spokesman said: ‘We completely condemn online misinformation and hate speech in all its forms and we are currently reviewing this situation.’
A spokesman for GSK said they were investigating.
The IOC and BetFred were also contacted for comment.
X did not respond to a request for comment.
The firm has also been facing trouble in Brazil over its controversial conduct.
And X recently said it was closing its local operations in Brazil following a bitter legal tussle over the platform’s rights and responsibilities.
The closure was the apparent culmination of an ongoing legal battle between Musk and Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who has said he is trying to fight the spread of dangerous disinformation online.
A post Saturday from X’s Global Government Affairs department said Moraes had ‘threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders.’
Secretary of Digital Policies Joao Brant writing on the platform that the company had a ‘pathetic attitude.’
He added that X would force a ‘probable escalation that could lead to blocking of the platform.’
Moraes previously had ordered the suspension of several Twitter accounts suspected of spreading disinformation, including those of supporters of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who tried to discredit the voting system in the 2022 presidential election, which he lost.
‘Freedom of expression doesn’t mean freedom of aggression,’ Moraes has said. ‘It doesn’t mean the freedom to defend tyranny.’
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