Advertisers are boycotting Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) at a rate of knots following the recent spate of riots in the UK.
The government has pledged to clamp down on social media firms which allow misinformation to spread in the wake of disturbances across the country prompted by the tragic deaths of three girls in Southport.
False online posts wrongly identifying the suspected killer as an Islamist migrant were widely shared before being taken down, including by agitators such as Tommy Robinson, who Musk has engaged with directly since.
The Tesla man has also had very public spats with British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, who he has branded “two-tier Keir” in reference to two-tier policing in the country.
On Tuesday, X filed a lawsuit against a marketing trade body and string of major advertisers including Unilever and Mars for an “illegal boycott” on the platform which – the claim said – violates antitrust legislation.
But rather than scare brands into submission, bosses in the media industry have told City A.M. that the move – which was variously described as “ego-driven”, “cult-like” and “insane” – is only likely to push already disillusioned brands further away from the ad spend-reliant site.
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Alex Tait, the founder of media and marketing agency Entropy, and who previously led Unilever’s ad spending strategy, said: “Musk’s lawsuit is likely driven by his ego rather than commercial logic.
“The concept of X being similar to a “town square”… is driven by a US centric view of the first amendment that doesn’t translate across other countries. [It is] at odds with what advertisers call “brand safety” essentially ensuring that their advertising doesn’t appear next to content that isn’t appropriate for their brands.”
Advertising X’s main advertising avenue, but after several high-profile spats between the platform and the advertisers on which it relies.
Alex Wilson, a senior strategist at London agency Pitch, told City A.M. that whereas pre-Musk Twitter was once a good avenue for brands to insert themselves into the biggest conversations, its unregulated nature has made it hard for to convince his clients to part way with money on the site.
“The great salespeople was have left, the verification system is a mess, half your followers are now sexbots, the most interesting people have moved somewhere else, the people still there are posting less, and your timeline is just and endless stream of misery.
“How do you make the case for advertising on a platform like that?”
Related: GB News considers suing advertisers who boycott its channel
