When it comes to modern advertising, targeting is the most important tactic. You can make sure the people most likely to engage with your company’s ads are the ones who see them. That fine-tuning comes from a variety of attributes, from your online interactions, your purchase histories, your friends and contacts, the people you follow, and even your search terms. Social networks, especially free ones like Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, and Reddit, rely on advertising that is targeted. Their data collection on their users’ interests ensures that ad buys on their networks will get to the right users. Companies want you to associate their brands with your interests.
But what if your interests include genocide?
Well, for advertisers on Twitter, that’s no problem! Twitter will happily run ads from anyone next to their rich library of hateful content. Under Elon Musk’s relaxed moderation rules, Twitter has become a safe haven for antisemitic, racist, homophobic, and transphobic hate speech. That means your companies ads on Twitter will end up right next to Holocaust deniers and new and exciting neo-Nazi content. So Disney can rest assured, their neo-Nazi fans will see those ads because Disney is the kind of company that likes to advertise directly to these people.
What? They’re not? Then why did Disney choose to advertise with Twitter, the largest site for hateful content?
“Verified” (or, you know, paid) Twitter users have shared clips from an antisemitic film, Europa: The Last Battle on the platform. The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks hate speech, especially antisemitic hate speech, calls it “an antisemitic, World War II revisionist film.” If you search for it on Twitter, you can find plenty of ads from large companies right up against it, including ads from Disney, Microsoft, Adobe, the NBA, Harper Collins, Bitdefender, Freddie Mac, BetterMe, and many more.
Guess they’re comfortable with that?
Twitter is Hate
You know, I’ve heard some great things about The Golden Girls, and I still haven’t checked it out. I really should. Still, this clip so frequently comes to mind. You are the company you keep, or the company you choose to do business with.
If you know a place is antisemitic, racist, transphobic, and choose to do business with them, then those adjectives also apply to you. Tolerating or even supporting hate is as bad as spreading it yourself. Acceptance gives hate a platform.
When Twitter said the Nazis could come back and that transphobic hate speech and even stochastic terrorism was acceptable, many advertisers backed out. However, some decided that the massive (yet likely shrinking) user base of Twitter was worth the potential association with hate. Disney, Apple, Microsoft, all of them, made this decision to allow their brand to be associated with a platform that allows hate.
“It just goes to show that the site is rife with extremist content, and yet brands are returning. And I think it’s deeply concerning because it not only directly can support and fund this kind of content — especially now that you know, Twitter is rolling out payments to Blue verified users who attract viewers — but also it normalizes this, it’s spreading this kind of far-right extremist neo-Nazi propaganda to all kinds of audiences that wouldn’t have seen it before.”
– Alejandra Caraballo, civil rights attorney and clinical instructor at the Harvard Law School Cyberlaw Clinic
Brands have had some warnings, with ads showing up next to known white supremacists, but now you can find Disney ads running right next to neo-Nazi propaganda. Twitter hasn’t pulled the content, but no longer shows ads on searches specifically for this singular piece of antisemitic content. The videos are still there, and ads will still show up next to it in feeds.
Hate as a Brand Image
I wonder if Adobe, Disney, Microsoft, and the NBA like the association their brands have. They must have because they’ve continued to run ads next to hate speech. It’s virtually guaranteed if you run ads on Twitter. They were likely hoping not many people would notice their ads in place next to hateful content. Perhaps they believed Twitter had not become as bad as it has. It’s tough to give them the benefit of the doubt, however, as this has happened before. It’ll happen again, too.
The only recourse is for brands to pull their ads from Twitter. Sure, they’ll sacrifice the views of millions of potential customers, but this isn’t the only place they will find those customers. Besides, how many customers do you stand to lose by showing your ads next to Holocaust deniers, antisemitic propaganda, and stochastic terrorists? As of now, multiple brands involved have refused to comment. Perhaps they’re still trying to figure out if they’ll see much damage to their brand image if they just ignore the issue and continue to advertise on Twitter.
Sources:
- Anti-Defamation League
- Mark DeGeurin, Gizmodo
- Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert, Business Insider