• by Colin Kirkland , November 22, 2023

The National Football League says it will continue to advertise on X -- despite broadcast partners including Disney, Comcast, Paramount Global and most recently, Fox Sports pausing their ad spend due to the proliferation of hate speech and antisemitic content on the social-messaging platform formerly known as Twitter.

“I think X is in a very difficult business because of the content moderation that they have to deal with,” Brian Rolapp, the NFL’s media and business chief, told CNBC’s Julia Boorstin. “We continue to work with them because our fans are clearly there.”

Exclusive NFL content has been popular with football fans on X since the league originally partnered with the platform in 2013. However, X has had ongoing issues with its content-moderation approach since Elon Musk took over the platform last year. 

Most recently, the platform has seen ad spending paused by major partners including Apple, Lionsgate, Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media and many other brands that fear their ads will appear adjacent to pro-Nazi content.

On Thursday, the advocacy group Media Matters for America reported that many companies’ ads had already appeared next to antisemitic content on X, including ads from Apple, Oracle, Comcast, and NBCUniversal’s Bravo network.

“On Sunday, NBC News found that hashtags associated with antisemitic conspiracy theories including “IsraelDid911” were still viewable and had ads running on them,” NBC News’ deputy tech editor Ben Goggin wrote on X on Wednesday. 

Furthermore, Musk recently engaged with an X user’s post about being “disinterested in giving the tiniest shit now about western Jewish populations” and that those “flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much.” In response, Musk wrote: “You have said the actual truth,” a post that has amassed millions of views.

On Monday, Musk sued Media Matters for America, accusing the watchdog of manipulating the site’s algorithm to drive advertisers away. 

New numbers from ad intelligence platform MediaRadar show that of the 261 companies that invested over $1 million on advertising on X from January 2022 to October 2022, when Musk officially bought the platform, 86% have reduced their spending this year. 

The top year-over-year reductions through October 2023, according to the report, include AT&T -- which dropped ad spend 97% -- Coca-Cola -- which dropped ad spend 96% -- and General Motors, which dropped ad spend 93% on X. 

“Our analysis at MediaRadar reveals a notable downturn in advertising spend from major brands on X, likely driven by brand safety concerns,” said Todd Krizelman, CEO and co-founder of MediaRadar. “Although there appeared to be progress in addressing these issues, recent developments suggest that X is still facing challenges.”

Although the NFL has decided to stay on X for fan engagement, mounting pressure from all four of its broadcast partners may prompt a change.