Techno Platforms Are Rejecting Paid Ads for Alex Gibney’s ‘Musk’
YouTube, TikTok and Meta have all turned down the trailer for the Oct. 9 doc, citing “political” content. X won’t even take Bleecker Street’s calls. The distributor is appealing.
The studio releasing Oscar winner Alex Gibney’s new, provocative documentary Musk is unable to buy ads on the biggest social platforms, raising serious fears of suppression.
YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram and Facebook owner Meta are all declining to run the trailer for Musk, along with X itself.
The approach of X might be more understandable, given its owner. But the rejection by the other platforms has surprised the distributor, Bleecker Street, which is trying to understand why the ad has been rejected.
The unwillingness of platforms to accept even paid ads should raise concerns about free speech and the dwindling number of companies that control the platforms in this country — and provide a proof-text for the point that the film is making.
As is well known by now, Gibney’s docu is a four-hour probe into the titular character who attempts to control the agenda setting in different and various ways, including alleged suppressions on X, which he had bought in 2022.
Bleecker Street opens Musk in theaters on October 9.
YouTube, TikTok and Meta have all supplied a reason related to “political content” to Bleecker Street reps.
The latter two companies’ platforms, by policy, do not allow campaign or other political ads. In Meta’s case, it is largely due to the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica Facebook scandal during the 2016 election.
But the Musk trailer, which dropped Thursday, does not appear to fall in the category of the campaign advertising that those bylaws were enacted to prevent.
It simply contains a shot of a political rally in 2024 and reference at the end to the 2024 election — the kind of flicks that occur in documentaries and are hardly meant to stump for a particular candidate in an upcoming race.
The reason for YouTube’s rejection is even less clear, as the platform does allow campaign ads, albeit with “paid for” disclosures from vetted candidates.
Press reps at Meta, TikTok, YouTube and X did not immediately provide comment.
A Bleecker Street rep confirmed that the ads were initially rejected but said they are continuing to appeal with all three companies besides X, hoping for change.
Traction on social media is key for a documentary release, which relies on word-of-mouth in a way a big-budget feature doesn’t.
Universal, which is releasing the film overseas, had considered backing away from distributing Musk before capitulating to public pressure, and repeating that it is standing by the film, though no further details have yet been given.
