At least one social media company is reversing its stance on advertising for director Alex Gibney’s upcoming documentary about Elon Musk. On Friday, The Hollywood Reporter reported that TikTok, Meta, YouTube, and X had all refused to run paid ads promoting the trailer for "Musk." However, when TechCrunch reached out to Meta on Saturday, a spokesperson stated, "This was an error and the ads are being restored."
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X’s rejection of the ads is not surprising, as Musk, who owns the platform, recently posted that "Dogshit is worth more respect than Gibney." Meanwhile, Meta, TikTok, and YouTube reportedly rejected the ad due to its classification as "political content," which these platforms have various restrictions on. Meta announced last year that it would stop accepting political ads in the European Union, while TikTok claims it does not run political ads at all.
It remains unclear how a documentary trailer qualifies as campaign advertising. The film’s U.S. distributor, Bleecker Street, informed The Hollywood Reporter that it is appealing the rejections.
