Why was there a pro-Hitler, Holocaust-denying ad on X?
The ad, which features a smiling photo of Hitler with happy children, has since been removed
Elon Musk rebranded Twitter as “X.” Can that be good for the Jews? Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
By Mira Fox February 13, 2025
An ad on X showed a black-and-white photo of Adolf Hitler, swastika armband prominently displayed, posing with a group of smiling children. The accompanying text spoke to “gentiles,” making fun of them for hating Hitler “for no other reason than ‘my teacher showed me Schindler’s List’ or ‘the museum tour guide told us he turned Jews into soap.’” The ad implies that these historical facts are lies that only a fool would believe.
The account that posted the ad went by the name “Nixon Groyper,” referencing Richard Nixon as well as the groypers, a neo-Nazi group started by notorious misogynist and antisemite Nick Fuentes.
Pro-Hitler, pro-Nazi and other antisemitic content has become increasingly common on X since Elon Musk took over the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. He slashed the moderation team in the name of both cost-cutting and free speech, resulting in a massive increase in conspiratorial posts and hate speech that drove away mainstream advertisers.
The Hitler post was listed as an ad on the platform, indicating that the account paid to have the post boosted into people’s feeds. But paying for an ad is not the only way to boost a post on X.
On X, users can pay for a blue verification check mark to appear on their profile. When the platform was Twitter, these check marks indicated that the account was verified, usually belonging to a notable person such as a journalist, politician, celebrity or other public figure. This helped users differentiate between troll or bot accounts imitating public figures and their official accounts. Since the platform became X, however, the blue checks simply indicate premium account users — and the paid membership to X includes bonuses such as boosting a premium user’s posts into the feeds of users who do not follow them.
This has led to antisemitic and other hateful posts being promoted into the feeds of those who don’t follow them; I regularly see Fuentes’ posts in my feed, thanks to his premium X account. Paying for an ad broadens a post’s reach even more than the basic level offered by premium accounts, but other post formats can spread rapidly on X.
While some people saw the pro-Hitler ad and wondered how it could be allowed, ads are not moderated differently from the general, low level of oversight X provides over any post, including premium, algorithmically promoted posts. And though the X terms of service prohibit direct attacks on another user based on protected characteristics such as race or religion, endorsing Hitler is not a direct attack and thus is technically allowed.
The pro-Hitler ad has since been removed. But it did not technically violate the site’s rules. Instead, the outcry over the ad is the likely culprit; after all, bad PR seems to be far more of a motivating concern for Musk than antisemitism.
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