Two weeks after X owner Elon Musk told advertisers leaving the platform to “go f*ck yourself,” some of them may be coming back. Netflix confirmed last Thursday (Dec. 14) to The Wrap it had resumed advertising on the platform formerly known as Twitter. According to Musk’s comments at Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Atreju festival in Rome this past weekend, more advertisers are following suit.
“I think X will be fine, and we are actually already seeing advertisers return to X,” Musk said on Dec. 16, without giving examples. At least nine media and tech companies have stopped advertising on X since November. It’s unclear which, other than Netflix, have returned to the platform. X didn’t immediately respond to an Observer inquiry.
This is a dramatic change in attitude from when Musk was interviewed at The New York Times DealBook Summit in late November, which took place shortly after major advertisers like The Walt Disney Company, Paramount and Apple paused advertising on X due to Musk endorsing antisemitic comments posted on the platform. He expressed in the interview that advertisers would be to blame for X’s demise.
“What this advertising boycott is gonna do…it’s gonna kill the company,” Musk told Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin at the DealBook Summit. “The whole world will know that advertisers killed the company and will document it in great detail.”
Musk’s comments in Rome seemed to call the advertisers’ bluff instead, calling the boycott a “short-term issue.” His struggle to bring ad revenue to X has not been a small one. It reportedly influenced his decision to hire Linda Yaccarino, head advertising executive from NBCUniversal, as X’s CEO in June. Advertising has also sparked battles between X and the Jewish nonprofit Anti-Defamation League, which Musk blamed for X’s declining ad sales, and a legal fight with media watchdog organization Media Matters, which pointed out ads being placed alongside antisemitic posts.
While X’s journey to ad recovery is ongoing, the platform may also be running into trouble with European regulators. The European Union (E.U.) launched an investigation today (Dec. 18) into X for possible violations of the E.U.’s Digital Services Act. The European Commission, the executive body of the E.U., will look into issues of illegal content, mis- and disinformation, transparency and design (especially users’ verification status) on the platform. Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for Internal Market, warned Musk in October that the E.U. had flagged these issues on X.
