Musk Uses His Political Power to Force Companies to Advertise on X

Advertisers fled the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) after Elon Musk bought it and made it a much friendlier place for trolls and racists. X is now trying to revive its ad revenue by using Musk’s political connections to threaten advertisers with retribution.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

A lawyer at advertising conglomerate Interpublic Group fielded a phone call in December from a lawyer at X. The message was clear, according to multiple people with knowledge of the conversation: Get your clients to spend more on Elon Musk’s social-media platform, or else.

Interpublic leaders interpreted the communications from X as reminders that the recently announced $13 billion deal to merge Interpublic with rival Omnicom Group could be torpedoed, or at least slowed down, by the Trump administration, given Musk’s powerful role in the federal government. …

“We now see brands returning in quite significant numbers, because the easiest route is to just spend a minimum viable amount on the platform,” said Ebiquity’s Schruers, “Not because they want to advertise there and run their ads adjacent to the content on X, but because they are afraid of the legal and political ramifications of not doing so.”

This is a circular trade—money for power for more money for more power—typical of the corrupt logic of authoritarian regimes. Musk uses his political connections to shake down advertisers for money, which he then uses to prop up the media platform that is the source of his political power.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

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