Hyundai pauses X ads over pro-Nazi content on the platform
The automaker Hyundai said it had paused its advertising on Elon Musk’s social media app, X, after a sponsored post from the company appeared next to antisemitic and pro-Nazi posts.
Hyundai confirmed the pause in a statement to NBC News late Wednesday and said it was taking its brand safety concerns to Musk’s company.
“We have paused our ads on X and are speaking to X directly about brand safety to ensure this issue is addressed,” Hyundai said in the statement.
Nancy Levine Stearns, a freelance journalist and X user, posted a screenshot Wednesday of a Hyundai ad running on an X account that often posts Holocaust denial and antisemitism. Stearns has written about brand safety on X for Hill Reporter, a progressive news site.
Joe Benarroch, head of business operations at X, confirmed the Hyundai pause in an email Thursday in response to questions. He said X was working with Hyundai’s marketers to put in place further brand safety controls.
X also suspended the account that made the antisemitic posts. The account’s bio included antisemitic tropes that violated X’s policy against abusive profiles, Benarroch said. A note on the account Thursday afternoon said it was “temporarily unavailable” because it violated policy.
