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Meta and YouTube Will Run Ads for Alex Gibney's 'Musk' Documentary
Meta and YouTube now say they will accept paid advertising for Alex Gibney's upcoming documentary about Elon Musk, after earlier reports that TikTok, Meta, YouTube and X had refused to promote the trailer. Meta called its rejection an error, and YouTube said the ad was temporarily restricted but has been cleared.
Earlier reports on Friday said TikTok, Meta, YouTube and X had all declined to run paid ads promoting the trailer for “Musk,” the Alex Gibney-directed film about Elon Musk. The refusals were reportedly tied to platform policies on political content.
Meta and TikTok have placed restrictions on political advertising. Meta said last year that it would stop accepting political ads in the European Union, while TikTok says it does not run them at all.
By Saturday, Meta reversed its position. A spokesperson said, “This was an error and the ads are being restored.”
YouTube also issued an update Saturday, saying the trailer “has always been available on YouTube.” The company added that when the trailer was submitted as an ad, it was “temporarily restricted” by its system, and that after review “the ad has been cleared to run.”
X’s rejection was less surprising because Musk owns the platform. He recently posted that “Dogshit is worth more respect than Gibney.” The film’s U.S. distributor, Bleecker Street, said it had appealed the rejections. It remains unclear how a documentary trailer would count as campaign advertising.