Apple has resumed advertising on X for the first time since pausing ads more than a year ago. The company was one of many to halt advertisements over concerns for brand safety following Elon Musk’s purchase of the social network.
While Xs approach to content moderation has changed little since then, Big Tech’s relationship with Musk has shifted since President Donald Trump took office, The Verge reported.
Apple was among several major advertisers, including Amazon, Disney, Comcast, Warner Bros., Discovery, and IBM, to pull out of the platform in November 2023 over concerns regarding controversial remarks about antisemitic conspiracy theories and white pride made by X owner Elon Musk.
X’s approach to moderation since Musk acquired the platform in 2022 has been widely criticized for failing to remove illegal or harmful content, including posts regarding misinformation, antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other hate speech.
Musk himself has also repeatedly engaged in such behavior, and gained more influence since befriending President Donald Trump and being handed his DOGE leadership position. The European Union is currently investigating the platform’s content moderation efforts, having already found that it violates the bloc’s rules around advertising transparency.
Mashable reported: Over a year ago, Apple removed its ads from X after Elon Musk backed a series of antisemitic posts from far-right users on the social media platform. Around the same time, a new report found that ads from companies such as Apple were being served on pro-Nazi content on X.
However, since November 2023, when Apple stopped advertising on Musk’s X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, a lot has happened. Namely, Donald Trump was elected president once again, and this time, Musk is essentially operating as his right-hand man.
Now, roughly 15 months after Apple halted its ad spend on X, Apple has returned to advertising on the platform.
While Apple has resumed ads on X, it’s unclear how big their current ad campaigns are. The Safari ad, for example, has just over 600,000 impressions as of publishing on Feb. 13. It was originally posted on Feb. 10. Other advertisers who previously left have returned at various points but with a significantly reduced marketing budget for ad spend on X.
MacRumors reported: Apple this month started advertising on X for the first time in more than a year. The company had stopped advertising on the social media platform in November 2023 following controversial remarks made by its owner Elon Musk.
A report last month indicated that Apple was considering advertising on X again, and evidently it has decided to do so, at least for now.
Apple is one of many brands that have paused advertising on X at least once, with other companies including Disney, Coca-Cola, Sony, IBM, Comcast, and more. Disney and many other brands have cautiously returned to advertising on the platform since.
In my opinion, I think it would be hard for various large companies to choose to post their advertisements on X, especially if their ads are posted next to unsavory content.