Twitter/X Rolls Out Evil New Ad Product That Can’t Be Blocked Or Reported
Well, this is pretty shady, even by Musk standards. X is rolling out truly shady ads that seem to be a) anonymous b) unblockable c) immune to reporting d) aren’t labeled as ads at all. Mashable reports that users are already seeing them in their feeds.
X, the Elon Musk-owned platform formerly known as Twitter, has begun serving its users with a weird new ad format and it's one of the company's least transparent products yet.
The rollout of these ads also provides the public with a hint regarding just how much the company is struggling to attract advertisers.
Multiple X users have reached out to Mashable over the past few days to report seeing a new type of ad in their For You feed that they had not previously come across on the platform. These new X ads don't allow users to like or retweet the ad posts. In fact, the new ad format also doesn't disclose who is behind the ad or that it is even an advertisement at all.
Just look at that. That is both a sure sign of desperation at Xitter and a prime vector for inevitable fuckery.
Mashable has confirmed this ad format with numerous users from across X and have seen a variety of different ads running this bizarre new format that just consists of written copy text, a photo, and a fake avatar that's sole purpose is to make the ad look like an organically posted tweet.
It gets better worse! Can I interest you in some unblockable, unreportable, totally anonymous Taboola-esque chumbox sludge in your feed? No? Too bad.
The type of content being promoted in the ads that Mashable has viewed appear to be consistent with ads found in spammy, low quality "chumbox" advertising – typically defined as those clickbait ads found at the bottom of posts on content farm sites – made popular by native ad networks like Taboola.
"This Seems Unbelievable, But Happens in Dubai Everyday" reads one ad that takes users to a third-party content mill website, overloaded with ads of its own. "These Incredibly Cool Gadgets That Are Going To Sell Out This Year. Action Now!" and "If you suffer from ringing ears (Tinnitus) you're going to love this recent breakthrough" are other examples of some of the content found in these X ads.
Why is this happening? Desperation, of course.
Since Musk's acquisition of the company, X has struggled to attract advertisers to the platform. Half of the platform's biggest advertisers stopped running ads shortly after Musk's takeover. Furthermore, according to a new report from Media Matters For America, the advertisers who have returned are spending up to 90 percent less on advertising on X than they did prior to Musk acquiring the company. Another recent report from Reuters found that Musk's X has faced declining revenue each and every month since he became the owner of the company.
In order to help with declining ad revenue, X has turned to partnering with third-parties within the adtech industry to sell available advertising inventory. Just last month, Google announced it would be partnering with X to sell programmatic advertising. Earlier this year, X also partnered with InMobi, a mobile-focused programmatic ad sales company.
What a mess.