X, the social media platform owned by Trump megadonor Elon Musk, is promoting Trump campaign-curated content to all U.S. users, regardless of whether they have opted out of Trump-related content.
On the platform formerly known as Twitter, banner ads for the Trump campaign donning the #Trump2024 tag appear for all U.S. users, even those who’ve blocked words, topics, and hashtags related to the candidate or his campaign or muted the advertiser.
Additionally, the #MAGA tag displays an edited image of the former president from his attempted assassination and the #Trump2024 hashtag displays an American flag.
Elon Musk’s X goes full pro-Trump with custom hashtag emoji icons#MAGA now appears with a pic of Trump with his first in the air#Trump2024 appears with an American flag
— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) July 18, 2024
if you click on the last one, American flags rain down on the search page
read: https://t.co/tSkXGFYSC8 pic.twitter.com/bSbzLEm935
It is unclear whether the Trump campaign paid for the images on the #Trump2024 and #MAGA tags, though an advertisement for the tag on the site’s trending page reads “Promoted by Team Trump.” As Mashable noted, it is the first time the platform has enabled the image feature to promote a specific political candidate.
Clicking the Trump2024 tag also prompts American flag graphics to flood the screen.
A 2019 ban on political ads, enacted due to election misinformation and other harmful content, was axed by Musk in 2023, months after he restored Trump’s account on the platform
Salon confirmed reports on social media that even users who muted or blocked the tags were served the advertisements at the top of the “explore” section of the app.
Elon Musk, who endorsed Trump and pledged a whopping $45 million a month to support the former president's efforts, purchased the platform in 2022, overseeing massive changes that resulted in more misinformation and dangerous content on the platform. He also removed a suspension on Trump's account, which had been in place since after the January 6th attack.
X and Musk join other platforms in their promotion of the president’s campaign, along with Meta, which removed guardrails on Trump’s accounts earlier this month, reversing policies set to ensure political stability on the platforms after Trump led the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
For Twitter to deserve public trust, it must be politically neutral, which effectively means upsetting the far right and the far left equally
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 27, 2022
The move seems to undermine Musk’s previous assertion that the platform, which he describes as a town hall or public forum, should be politically neutral.
