How platforms censored the ‘Musk’ documentary

Here’s how platforms censored ads for the ‘Musk’ documentary. YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook owner Meta, and, predictably, Musk’s own platform X all first refused to run paid advertisements for Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney’s new four-hour documentary Musk, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Two of the social media companies quickly backtracked after the publicity. A Meta spokesperson later told the Daily Beast that the ad stonewall “was an error, and we’re restoring the ads.” YouTube said in a statement Saturday that the Musk trailer “has always been available on YouTube. When submitted as an ad, it was temporarily restricted by our system. Following review, the ad has been cleared to run.” The film’s independent distributor, Bleecker Street, was initially told by several platforms that the content violates their bans on “political content,” even though it promotes a movie trailer—not a political candidate or campaign. YouTube, TikTok, and Meta all initially claimed the trailer breached their ban on political ads. The film contains scenes from political rallies, but is not itself a political advertisement. Instagram has not yet said why it rejected the ad. Caption from article by Mary Papenfuss, The Daily Beast.