X could lose up to $75 million in revenue as more advertisers pull out

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Internal documents seen by The New York Times this week show that the company is in a more difficult position than previously known and that concerns about Mr. Musk and the platform have spread beyond companies including IBM, Apple and Disney, which have paused their advertising campaigns. On X last week. The documents list more than 200 ad units for the likes of Airbnb, Amazon, Coca-Cola and Microsoft, many of which have paused or are considering pausing their advertising on the social network.

The documents come from X’s sales team and aim to track the impact of all the advertising lapses this month, including those made by companies that have already paused and others that may be at risk of doing so. It lists the amount of advertising revenue that X employees fear the company will lose through the end of the year if advertisers don’t return.

On Friday, X said in a statement that $11 million in revenue was at risk and that the exact number fluctuates as some advertisers return to the platform and others spend more. The company said the numbers seen by The Times were either outdated or represented an internal exercise to assess overall risk.

The advertising freeze comes during the last three months of the year, which is traditionally the social media company’s strongest quarter as brands launch holiday promotions for events like Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday. In the final three months of 2021 — the last year in which the company reported fourth-quarter earnings before Mr. Musk took over — the company reported revenue of $1.57 billion, roughly 90 percent of which came from advertising.

Since Mr. Musk acquired Twitter last year for $44 billion, some brands have been reluctant to advertise on the platform, concerned about Mr. Musk’s behavior and content moderation decisions, which have led to a rise in inflammatory and hateful content. US advertising on the platform is down nearly 60 percent this year, prompting the company to try to attract advertisers again in an effort led by its CEO, Linda Yaccarino. X is also running advertising campaigns during the holidays to try to make up for the revenue shortfall.

But the documents reveal that it was not planned. More than 100 brands appear as having “paused their advertising completely” while dozens more are listed as “at risk.” Many paused on or after November 15, when Mr. Musk wrote in an X post that the conspiracy theory that Jews support minority immigration to replace white populations was “the actual truth.”

Leisha Anderson, vice president of digital marketing and social media at ad agency Outcast, said her clients had steadily stopped spending on X after Mr. Musk took over and were finding alternatives on platforms like LinkedIn and TikTok.

“In today’s dynamic marketplace, brands have a multitude of platform options available to them for precise audience targeting,” she said. “Therefore, it is essential that moderators and social platform owners exercise intentional discretion in all aspects, whether their personal beliefs or political stances, as these choices will inevitably be subject to public scrutiny.”

The organizations that have paused their advertising on X range from political campaigns to fast food chains to tech giants, according to the documents. Airbnb, for example, has suspended more than $1 million in advertising, while Uber has cut more than $800,000 worth of advertising and halted campaigns in US and international markets. The two technology companies declined to comment.

Other major brands, including Jack in the Box, Coca-Cola and Netflix, have also paused some of their campaigns. Netflix’s discontinued ads were worth nearly $3 million, according to X estimates. Jack in the Box, Coca-Cola and Netflix did not respond to requests for comment.

Several Microsoft subsidiaries also stopped advertising — leading to a potential loss of more than $4 million in fourth-quarter revenue for X, based on documents — as did Amazon’s books and music units and a subsidiary of Google. The search giant and some other brands that have paused spending, including NBCUniversalcontinue publishing content on the platform without paying X to ensure it reaches a wide audience.

Google and Microsoft declined to comment. Amazon did not respond to requests for comment.

On NBC’s “Meet the Press” last Sunday, Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie described Mr. Musk’s comment as part of a recent outpouring of “a hideous kind of hate.”

“Whether it is Elon Musk, whether it is the professors at our universities or the students who are misleading them, or whether it is individuals speaking in an anti-Semitic manner on the streets of our cities,” he said.

Two days before Mr. Christie’s appearance, the super PAC supporting him, called Tell It Like It Is, pulled its ad from X, according to the documents. A representative for the political fundraising group did not respond to a request for comment.

At an internal meeting with staff at X this week, Ms. Yaccarino cut through the defiant mood. She made no mention of Mr. Musk’s endorsement of the anti-Semitic post, attributing the company’s problems to a report by the left-wing media watchdog group Media Matters, which showed that ads on X from companies like IBM and Apple appeared next to posts promoting whiteness. Nationalist and Nazi content.

On Monday, after Mr. Musk called Media Matters a “nefarious organization,” Company Paid to X’s largest advertisers and adjacent to racist and inflammatory content. Ms. Yaccarino blamed the Media Matters report for the decline in X ad sales.

“Giving in to outside criticism or pressure is absolutely not the way X will operate,” she wrote in an email to X employees on Wednesday, seen by The Times. “People at X are defenders of free speech. We stand in solidarity with those who believe in this fundamental right and the checks and balances critical to a thriving democracy.

Earlier this week, Mr. Musk spent some time celebrating companies that have continued to advertise on X, including the National Football League. Use Heart emojithe billionaire owner of

Mr. Musk too male The company will donate “all advertising and subscription revenues related to the war in Gaza to hospitals in Israel and the Red Cross/Red Crescent in Gaza.” The funding will include advertising revenues bought by charitable groups, news organizations and other groups that advertise content related to the conflict.

Following her boss, Ms. Yaccarino added to Mr. Musk’s original post with a request.

“Lean in and help,” she said. books On X.

Tiffany Hsu Contributed to reports.