(Web Desk) - Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, may face up to $75 million in lost advertising revenue by year’s end as companies scramble to distance their ads from pro-Nazi content, The New York Times first reported.
More than 200 ad units from companies including Airbnb, Amazon, Coca-Cola and Microsoft have already discontinued or are considering doing so, according to internal company documents from X, formerly Twitter, viewed by the Times.
These would join the rapidly growing list of companies, from IBM, NBCUniversal and Apple to Fox Sports and Ubisoft, pulling their ads from the site after a report from progressive media watchdog Media Matters for America revealed that ads for major companies on X appeared next to pro-Nazi content.
Musk also responded in agreement to a post that said those angry with him over low ad revenue sharing payouts “should be angry at Media Matters for its deceitful campaign against X” and at those “actively advocating for X to fail because they are motivated by their hatred of Elon Musk.”
“Those jerks are starving all the creators on our platform!” Musk replied.
The documents seen by the Times come from the platform’s sales team, and track declines in advertising for the month from companies that have already paused ads and those that might, as well as predict losses through the end of the year, according to the outlet.
More than 100 brands "fully paused" their advertising on the platform, the documents showed.
Netflix halted an estimated almost $3 million in ads, Airbnb halted more than $1 million, and Uber scaled back ads worth more than $800,000, according to the Times.