Meet the people supporting Elon Musk as he makes X more toxic

Why we're wading into the noxious bog that is X

We didn't want to get involved in the mess formerly known as Twitter.

Social media platforms are out of scope for Check My Ads Institute. We are the only organization focusing on ad-funded disinformation on the open web.

But X's toxic shift must be addressed. This is a prime opportunity to educate the public on the adtech players who support Elon Musk behind the scenes — even as he invites everyone from neo-Nazis to child-abuse-material-posters back to the platform.

1. Integral Ad Science CEO Lisa Utzschneider is touting a new beta partnership with X to protect advertisers from hate speech on the platform. How are they going to do that? We've tested their product and can confirm it can't identify basic white supremacist language. The product doesn't work in English — let alone in the 60 languages she claims it will.

2. Trustworthy Accountability Group has provided X with a Brand Safety Certified Seal. Its CEO, Mike Zaneis, has a long history of "certifying" bad actors through his pay-to-play scheme. Most recently, they certified MGID, a company with links to Russian state-backed media as "brand safe. He's now providing the same cover to X, paving the way for unwitting advertisers to work with X.

3. WFA's Global Alliance for Responsible Media's (GARM) head Robert Rakowitz wrote Elon Musk a fawning letter after his Twitter takeover. For the last year, X has flouted the basic charter of GARM. Musk himself has bullied and harassed individuals on his platform. The ONLY correct action at this point would be to kick X out of GARM – but we haven't heard a peep from Robert.

And so here we are. Note these names. These are the people who bolster Musk in the advertising community as he launches an anti-Semitic campaign against the Anti-Defamation League (and on Jewish people in general), attacks the transgender community, and the list goes on.

We gave the adtech leaders a chance to show up and do the right thing. They didn't. So here we are — and we are ready to fight. 🤝

IN THE MEDIA 📰

• Look ma, we made it! Claire dropped a killer Harvard Business Review article. We hope you read it! [READ: Are Your Ads Funding Disinformation?]
• Nandini was on a panel at Ars Electronica in Linz [WATCH: “(What) can I believe?”]
• Claire appeared in this NBC News article, highlighting how Elon Musk's attacks on civil society organizations is desperate flailing. “An attack on the ADL is an attack on all“ civil society orgs, Claire said. [READ: Civil rights groups attacked by Elon Musk are mounting a counteroffensive]
• Nandini talked to AdExchanger’s Allison Schiff about how we choose our projects at Check My Ads! [LISTEN: Exposing Ad Tech’s Dirty Laundry]
• Thanks to an eagle-eyed supporter, we helped break the story that X has been running unmarked ads on the platform. That’s an instant FTC violation. [READ: X is no longer labeling ads for some users]

ACTION ALERT 📢

Next week is Climate Week and we’re getting in on the action. We're taking the fight straight to one of the biggest climate disinfo sites in the world.

Keep an eye on your inbox. Every day next week, we’ll be sending out action emails to some adtech executives that need to hear from all of us.

See you Monday,

Claire & Nandini