X reportedly paid Holocaust-denying account $3,000 in ad revenue
An account that appears to violate X’s policies around violent speech shared screenshots documenting revenue earned through the platform
The logo of social media app X (formerly Twitter). Photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP via Getty Images
By Debrah Miszak November 14, 2023
A new report appears to confirm that the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has paid ad revenue to social media accounts that post antisemitic propaganda and disinformation.
A verified account with nearly 100,000 followers, which has shared antisemitic posts that have collectively garnered millions of views, bragged that it had earned $3,000 this year in ad revenue-sharing this year from online gambling companies including BetMGM, DraftKings and FanDuel.
In one post from November 8 with over 5,000 likes and 2,000 retweets, the account wrote, “Personally, I think that the same people Hitler was fighting, are the same people that are trying to control the world today — These are the same people that control all central banks/federal reserve…”
The account in question, which goes by the handle “bambkb,” claimed in screenshots to have earned the money through the X’s monetization feature. (The names of the individuals or people who run the account are unknown.) It is the first time that evidence has appeared to confirm that an account that seems to violate X’s policies around violent speech has profited from the content it shares on the app.
The content policy that X published in April states “We prohibit targeting individuals or groups with content that references forms of violence or violent events where a protected category was the primary target or victims, where the intent is to harass. This includes, but is not limited to media or text that refers to or depicts…genocides, (e.g., the Holocaust).”
BBC reporter Shayan Sardarizadeh noted that, in addition to ad revenue sharing, X used its algorithm to boost a post from the account in question that read, “Have you realized that Hitler’s speeches have no subtitles? Why don’t they want people to see what he was saying?”
This is not the first time X has found itself in hot water over the spread of antisemitism on the platform.
Elon Musk, X’s controversial owner, has made a variety of troubling statements about Jews since he purchased the platform in 2022.
In June, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which studies hate speech on social media, published a study confirming that the platform had not taken action against 99% of hate speech posted by Twitter Blue users. This included a post that claimed, “the Jewish Mafia wants to replace us all with brown people except for some sex slaves.”
Rapper Kanye West, who now legally goes by Ye, was banned from the platform in December 2022 for bizarre rants praising Adolf Hitler, among other antisemitic statements. In July, his account was controversially reinstated after West “assured the platform, recently rebranded as X, that he would refrain from sharing antisemitic content or using harmful language.”
On Oct. 9, following the brutal Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that killed an estimated 1,200 Israelis, X’s controversial owner, Elon Musk, recommended users two accounts known to spread misinformation about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and antisemitism for news on the ongoing conflict.
X could not be reached for comment.
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