Apple may have considered resuming advertising on X

The X logo that replaced the Twitter blue bird

A quick blurb in a larger story about increased advertising spend from Amazon suggests Apple may have considered resuming ads on X, but recent controversial acts by Elon Musk may affect its decision.

It seems in the run-up to inauguration day, Apple may have at least considered or had discussions about returning advertising to X in some respect. As of this publication, it still hasn’t returned and there is no information about how recent events have affected this decision.

The one-liner can be found in a Wall Street Journal report about Amazon increasing ad spend on X. Apple and other big tech companies paused ad spend in November 2023 after CEO Elon Musk promoted a post directed at the US Jewish community.

The post said “Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.” Musk responded “You have said the actual truth.”

Since then, users have flocked to other platforms like Mastodon and Bluesky, with the latter proving to be more popular and mainstream so far at 30 million users. Apple never resumed advertising on X, but maintained its various accounts on the platform.

Musk has continued to be a controversial figure, posting about racism against white people, hoards of illegal immigration ruining the country, and his support of extremist right-winged values. He has been placed in charge of an office that operates outside of the federal government, but reports to President Trump, called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Apple CEO Tim Cook has attended dinners with President Trump, ones where Elon Musk was presumably present, and Cook even donated $1 million of his own money to the inauguration fund. It seems likely that during these in-person visits, resuming ad spend on X would have been brought up, and that fits the “recent weeks” timeline of the report.

However, since President Trump took office, things are moving quickly. Apple isn’t exactly rushing to appease every demand, as it took a half-measure to show the Gulf of America in Apple Maps, but only when users search for the term.

Apple may have considered, and still may be considering, returning advertising to some small degree to X. Its initial concerns were about seeing its ads appearing near extremist views or even posts from self-proclaimed Nazis that call the platform home.

The situation is even more complex given that since the inauguration, Elon Musk rendered what has been described as two Nazi salutes, which he denies. Musk doubled down on the “joke” by posting multiple times on X referring to Nazis and other extremist leaders in a lighthearted way, including jokes about the Holocaust.

Musk has also been promoting a lot of anti-LGBTQ, especially anti-trans, content on his platform. It isn’t clear how Cook would account for these actions when deciding to resume ad spend.

X is “barely breaking even,” according to Musk. After bleeding a lot of active users due to repeat controversies, the platform is clearly struggling to find its footing as the “global town square.”

Time will tell what actions Apple and CEO Tim Cook take. It may decide that such controversies aren’t enough to stop them from showing ads, or perhaps they’ll sit it out and hope no one pushes back since companies like Amazon are making up the difference.