Bell Media, Angus Reid and other Canadian brands halt ads on X amid extremism concerns
Jonathan Montpetit | CBC News | Posted: December 12, 2023 9:00 AM | Last Updated: December 12
Advertisers increasingly reticent since Elon Musk took over platform a year ago
Ads for several prominent Canadian companies and organizations have been appearing in the feeds of extremist accounts on X, prompting some of them to pause advertising on the social media platform following an investigation by CBC News.
They join a growing number of brands that are backing away from X, formerly known as Twitter, amid the unchecked rise in hateful content and owner Elon Musk's seeming endorsement of antisemitic and other far-right conspiracy theories.
A review by CBC News of about two dozen accounts linked to white nationalists, white supremacists, misogynists and other extremists found ads by major brands such as Samsung Canada, CF Montréal and Pathways Alliance, an oil industry lobby group.
Ads for Samsung's new Galaxy flip phone appeared in the results when searching for a hashtag used to circulate racist content, where other posts included messages such as "Keep Europe White."
Samsung ads also appeared in the feed of an account that the Tech Transparency Project, a watchdog group, flagged for spreading Islamophobic and antisemitic conspiracy theories.
In addition, Samsung ads were spotted in the feeds of Libs of TikTok, which LGBTQ advocates say stirs up anti-trans hatred, and Mike Cernovich, who has been described by extremism researchers as a "male supremacist."
Samsung's Canadian office did not respond to several emails sent by CBC News requesting comment.
Pathways Alliance, which lobbies on behalf of such companies as Cenovus Energy and Suncor, had ads appear in Carl Benjamin's feed. Benjamin has been kicked off other social media platforms in the past for making racist and misogynistic comments.
The lobby group's ads also appeared in the feed of an individual who leads a far-right fitness group and whose posts include images of his sunwheel tattoo, a symbol popular among neo-Nazis.
Media representatives from Pathways Alliance did not respond to emails from CBC News asking for comment.
B'nai Brith plans to continue advertising
Ads for Montreal's Major League Soccer team, CF Montréal, and for the Jewish advocacy group B'nai Brith Canada appeared in the feed of Richard Spencer, a well-known white nationalist who helped lead a march in 2017 where followers chanted "Jews will not replace us."
CF Montréal did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Michael Mostyn, CEO of B'nai Brith Canada, said despite his organization's concerns about antisemitism on social media, it had no plans to stop advertising on X.
"B'nai Brith has made a conscious decision to remain on social media," he said in an interview.
"So if you're making a conscious decision to stay in the social media space ... there's a lot of good and bad that comes with all of that."
Other companies and organizations, though, said they halted advertising on X when informed by CBC News about where their ads were appearing.
Bell Media suspended advertising on X after it was informed that an ad for a subsidiary, the news division of Quebec TV network Noovo, appeared in the feed of the far-right fitness leader.
The ad appeared over a post that called journalists "priests of ruin" and featured the slogan "all journos are bastards."
"Despite putting measures in place to protect Noovo from such a situation, it seems that X considered the offensive content from a third party to be moderate, which allowed our ad to appear alongside it," Patrick Tremblay, a Bell Media spokesperson, said in a statement to CBC News last week.
"This situation is unacceptable. As a result, we have interrupted Bell Media advertising campaigns on X."
Angus Reid, Sun Life cut ties with X
An ad for public opinion firm Angus Reid seeking survey participants appeared on an account called Anti White Watch, which researchers have noted spreads antisemitic and racist conspiracy theories.
"Our team met with X representatives in the past month to confirm that our ads account is set up with the most stringent sensitivity settings X offers. In this case, those controls appear to have failed," Spencer Reynolds, director of marketing and communication at Angus Reid, said in an email.
"Angus Reid Forum has ceased all activity on X indefinitely pending a comprehensive review."
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The Appraisal Institute of Canada, an association of real estate valuation experts, paused its advertising campaign on X after it was informed its ads were appearing in the feeds of Carl Benjamin, Richard Spencer and an account linked to the white nationalist and antisemitic Groyper movement.
Ads for insurance giant Sun Life appeared in the feeds of multiple accounts of extremists, including Spencer's, as part of a sponsored content campaign with the National Post.
Sun Life stopped advertising on X after Musk took over the platform last year, and the placement of the sponsored content ad was an error, a Sun Life representative said.
"We are very concerned that our ad appeared next to disturbing and hateful content and have had it removed from X," Gannon Loftus, director of corporate communications, said in an email.
National Post-sponsored content bought by non-profits Mood Disorders Society of Canada and the Pedigree Foundation appeared in the feeds of Anti White Watch and Andrew Tate, a self-proclaimed misogynist influencer who is facing human trafficking charges in Romania. (Tate denies the charges.)
In a statement, a spokesperson for Mood Disorders Society of Canada said: "We do not support or endorse extremist views or any perspectives that could potentially harm those we serve."
The spokesperson did not respond to a question about whether the organization intended to continue advertising on X.
Neither the National Post nor the Pedigree Foundation responded to emails sent by CBC News. (Disclosure: In 2015, prior to joining CBC News, Jonathan Montpetit did contract work for Postmedia's sponsored content unit.)
Musk's tumultuous tenure
Advertisers have been increasingly reticent about doing business with X since Musk took over the platform in October 2022. Ad revenues have dropped more than 50 per cent year-over-year in every month since Musk bought Twitter for an estimated $44 billion US, Reuters reported this fall.
Among his first moves was firing staff responsible for content moderation and disbanding an advisory group on harmful content. In late July, he changed the name to X from Twitter.
Musk, who is also CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX, restored dozens of accounts that had been booted off the platform for violating community standards, including that of former U.S. president Donald Trump.
One study released in April found that hate speech levels on what was then still called Twitter quadrupled following Musk's takeover.
"[Musk] has decided that anything goes, basically, unless he disagrees with it. And it's been a disaster," said Wendy Via, president and co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, a non-profit that monitors far-right activity and has worked with Twitter in the past.
When buying ads from X, advertisers can request they not appear alongside certain forms of content. But without systems in place to monitor and categorize content accurately, there are few assurances that an advertiser's wishes are respected, Via said.
Devon MacDonald, president of the Toronto-based advertising firm Cairns Oneil, said he advised his clients last year to stop advertising on the platform.
"We reached out to Twitter at the time to ask them a little about what brand safety controls were going to be applied with this new vision for the platform, and they weren't able to give us any satisfactory answer," MacDonald said.
"A brand wants to communicate their brand message. They want to communicate with consumers in a positive way that puts their product in a positive position. Harmful content works against that for them."
Spreading conspiracy theories costly
Musk's own behaviour both on and off the social media platform has only compounded the unease felt by advertisers.
He has repeatedly used his account, which now has more than 165 million followers, to spread far-right conspiracy theories, including about an attack on former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband and about billionaire George Soros.
On Nov. 15, Musk endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory, drawing widespread condemnation, including from the White House.
Within days, major brands, including the Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Discovery and IBM, announced they were pausing advertising campaigns on X.
Musk later apologized for the antisemitic remark, calling it "the dumbest post I've ever done," but he also lashed out at advertisers that had left the platform.
"If somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go f--k yourself," he told an audience in New York City in late November.
In recent weeks, Musk has boosted the "pizzagate" conspiracy theory, which falsely maintains that top Democrats are involved in a pedophile ring operated from a Washington, D.C., pizza shop.
"The recent comments from Elon Musk and the recent activity on the platform just solidifies our position and makes us feel comfortable with not directing our dollars that way," MacDonald said.
X did not respond to a request for comment from CBC News.
How X's ads work
The company recently sued the progressive media monitoring group Media Matters after it published findings that ads for major brands were being displayed in close proximity to hateful content.
In court documents, X said the findings were not representative of the average user's experience of the platform and that only one per cent of measured ads in 2023 appeared alongside content deemed to harm brand safety.
CBC News discovered the Canadian ads mentioned above by using this journalist's long-standing X account to search the feeds of 25 accounts and hashtags known to be associated with the far right. The process involved spot checks between Nov. 28 and Dec 8.
These companies and organizations were not the only ones whose ads appeared in the feeds of extremist accounts. CBC News also reviewed several hashtags and extremist accounts on X that contained no ads at all.
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Ad placement on X is determined by who a user follows, and what they post, search, view and interact with, the company says on its website.
According to the "Why this ad" function on X, the ads seen by CBC News were influenced by the journalist's age, geographic location (Montreal) and inferred interests.
CBC News also consulted the X accounts of two non-journalists in Montreal to see what ads were displayed when scrolling the feeds of far-right accounts.
These searches revealed ads that were similar to those seen on the CBC journalist's phone, including the B'nai Brith ad on Spencer's account, the Pathways ads on the far-right fitness leader's account and the Samsung ads on the same account.