Elon Musk's X falls behind on updating political advertising disclosures

By Biz Carson and Kurt Wagner

 

Elon Musk’s X is lagging behind on its political advertising disclosures, making it harder for outsiders to understand how politicians and PACs are using the social network to influence the upcoming election. 

X, formerly known as Twitter, last updated its political ads library on Oct. 25. The company typically refreshes the list — a spreadsheet detailing political ad spending on its site — every two business days.

 

X isn’t legally required to update the database, but it’s become an expected practice for the company and its tech peers. X also missed one update last month. 

 

 

The US presidential election is just four days away and Musk has ramped up his use of the platform he owns to promote Donald Trump’s campaign. His super political action committee, America PAC, is spending heavily to help the former president defeat Vice President Kamala Harris. Musk is the world’s richest person with a net worth of $262.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

 

X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

 

Social media companies like Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc. first started disclosing details about political marketing after Russia-linked groups bought ads during the 2016 election. Meta unveiled an ads library to improve transparency in 2018 and has made it broadly available. Twitter announced its own library that year and banned political ads entirely in 2019 — a decision that was reversed shortly after Musk acquired the company in late 2022.

 

X’s lack of updates probably doesn’t violate any reporting requirements. Though the Federal Election Commission mandates disclaimer language on certain internet ads, it doesn’t require social media companies to maintain a database. The Federal Communications Commission’s rules apply to radio and TV broadcast stations, not social media.

 

Musk has turned most of his attention to Pennsylvania in recent weeks, a state he believes is a must-win for Trump. He has hosted a series of town-hall-style talks and launched an incentive program for swing state voters to sign a petition and receive cash in exchange. Musk recently upped the payouts from $47 to $100 for recruiting someone to endorse the petition. He’s now giving away $1 million every day through Nov. 5 to one random signer — an effort that the Philadelphia district attorney is trying to stop.

 

America PAC has spent more than $233,000 on advertisements on X, according to earlier disclosures. It had previously mostly targeted Georgia and Nevada, but on Oct. 7, Musk’s PAC took over the @America handle on X and has only run ads targeted to users in Pennsylvania since.