Paid ads for major organizations linked to the Republican and Democratic parties and some of the biggest names have appeared in pro-Nazi and racist posts shared on Elon Musk’s X social media platform, before Twitter, a CBS News investigation found.
Advertisement for the Republican Senate campaign arm, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and the right-wing Heritage Foundation think tank have appeared in racist or pro-Nazi posts from verified accounts on X.
Last week, the The World Bank is ending all paid advertising on X after an investigation CBS News found ads promoted by the organization showing up in racist posts from accounts that prolifically post pro-Nazi and white nationalist content. The World Bank made the decision to remove all paid advertising on X, calling the incident “unacceptable,” after ads promoting racist posts were flagged to the organization by CBS News.
Ads linked to Republicans and Democrats in racist posts
One of the US political ads found by CBS News was under a post by a verified account that produced pro-Nazi and racist content. The account, which has nearly 100,000 followers, shows a picture of Hitler rejecting the Star of David held up by his arm with a striped sleeve.
Image X
In the post, an ad for the Republican National Senatorial Committee appeared directing users to donate through WinRed, a popular conservative online fundraising platform used by many GOP candidates and groups, including the campaign of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee.
The ad showed a picture of Florida Senator Marco Rubio with a caption saying it was “paid for by the NRSC.”
The NRSC is the chair of a fundraising committee dedicated to getting Republican candidates elected to the US Senate. Several other promotional ads directing users to WinRed are posted in the same content. CBS News has not publicly identified accounts that spread racist content on X.
CBS News asked the NRSC and WinRed for comment on the placement of fundraising ads on X. In response to questions about advertising on X, NRSC spokesman Mike Berg wrote in a post on the platform that CBS News, “is trying to force advertisers to stop spending money on X with associating advertisers and (Musk) with white nationalists,” which he called “patently absurd.”
Promotional ads for the congressional campaign of Jerrad Christan, the Democratic candidate for Ohio’s 12th district, also appeared in antisemitic postings. The seat is currently held by Republican Troy Balderson.
A post by a verified account with 150,000 followers shows a man with a boot on his neck under the Statue of Liberty. The caption on the picture read, “Land of Freedom. Where the Jews rule, Freedom is just an empty dream.”
A Christian campaign ad appears below the image with a link directing readers to ActBlue, a fundraising platform widely used by Democratic campaigns.
In another post by the same account, CBS News found an ad for the National Republican Senatorial Committee — an ad paid for by Mary Trump’s political action committee, the Democratic Defense Fund, with a link to the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue. Mary Trump, the niece of the former US president, has been against her uncle for years.
The post depicts an Orthodox Jew dancing on a grave with the caption: “Remind you not to die for shlomo. He will dance on your grave.”
The PAC ad below the post features a picture of Mary Trump with a request to donate money to help “defeat Donald, defend the Senate, and flip the House.”
CBS News requested comment from Jerrad Christian’s campaign for Congress and Mary Trump’s PAC regarding the organization’s ad placement.
Money for content on Elon Musk’s X
Since Musk in October 2022 took over what is now Twitter, he has been dismantled protection on the platform. These include dramatic changes to the verification system and the removal of the Trust and Safety advisory groups, as well as changes to more content moderation and hate speech enforcement on X.
In its place, Musk has created a system in which X’s algorithm selects accounts that pay for the platform’s blue check subscription service. According to X’s own marketing for its verification service, premium X offers “reply priority” to all customers.
The change also allows influencers who purchase verified subscription programs to monetize their content. Subscribers are eligible to receive a share of ad revenue for their content if they “have at least 5M organic impressions on their cumulative posts in the last 3 months” and “have at least 500 followers.”
Under X’s terms of use, accounts can do this without revealing their public identity, if the account holder privately discloses their ID to the platform.
“X allows the use of pseudonymous accounts, which means that account profiles are not required to use the account owner’s name or picture. Accounts that look similar to others on X do not violate this policy, as long as the purpose is not to deceive or deceive others,” according to the platform’s guidelines.
The majority of verified X accounts reviewed by CBS News that have political ads in their content will, according to the company’s own guidelines, get a share of the ad revenue under that policy.
Does X have the capacity to control hate speech?
Last week, the World Bank stopped all paid advertising on X after a CBS News investigation found ads promoted by the organization appeared in racist posts from accounts that prolifically posted 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 algorithm can determine where to place ads based on which accounts have the most engagement.
“When they (X) have problems with companies like IBM or Disney they complain ads appear next to Nazi contentthis Nazi account got millions of impressions,” said van der Linden. “I think what’s happening there is that the algorithm recommends placing ads next to content that gets a lot of engagement to try to expand its reach.”
Van der Linden said that since Musk took over the social media platform in 2022, the removal of content moderation measures has led to an explosion of hate speech content.
“He (Musk) doesn’t have the tools to moderate, demote and demonetize the content,” van der Linden told CBS News. “Musk has claimed that hate speech doesn’t earn ad revenue … it does.”
CBS News has repeatedly asked X whether the account as part of its investigation profited from sharing pro-Nazi and racist content, and about the placement of ads on the platform. There was no response from the company at the time of publication.
When CBS News found ads from groups affiliated with the major U.S. political parties, fewer Democratic political ads than Republican ads appeared to contain racist content.
One post from a verified account with more than 160,000 followers showed a picture of an animated superhero with the caption: “antisemites will save the world.”
A promotional ad for the NRSC appeared in the post with a link directing readers to donate and a picture of Mr. Trump, with the caption: “Is the Media fair to Trump?”
In total, CBS News found political fundraising ads promoting GOP groups and candidates in at least 10 different posts from accounts known to promote pro-Nazi and racist content.
Ads for the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank also appeared on antisemitic posts from accounts known to share pro-Nazi content. The account has more than 150,000 followers. CBS News asked The Heritage Foundation to comment on the ad placement on X.
