Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media suspends advertising on Twitter in latest blow to Elon Musk’s platform
Paris Hilton has become the latest big name to give Twitter boss Elon Musk a headache as he launches another dicey lawsuit.
Paris Hilton’s entertainment company has pulled its ad campaign from X, formerly known as Twitter, just a month after the deal was touted as a “new era” for the struggling platform.
It makes Hilton’s new venture, called 11:11 Media, the latest brand to halt ad spending on the site over concerns it is propagating antisemitic and pro-Nazi content.
“11:11 Media made the decision to immediately pull the campaign from the platform,” Bruce Gersh, 11:11 Media’s president and chief operating officer, told CNN on Tuesday.
When Elon Musk sensationally took over X, then called Twitter, last year, he promised to make it a safe haven for free speech.
Since then, multiple studies have indicated an explosion of hate speech and misinformation on the platform. Australia’s own eSafety Commissioner threatened X with a $700,000 fine if it didn’t reel its users in.
Then, last week, progressive media watchdog Media Matters reported X had placed ads from brands including Amazon, NBA Mexico and IBM directly next to tweets that supported white nationalism, Adolf Hitler and Nazism.
IBM halted ads on the platform after the report, while other brands that were not named including Disney and Paramount followed suit.
The queen of pop culture, music, business, and TV is #Sliving on X. @ParisHilton welcome to the @X family, we're excited to launch an official partnership with you and your next-gen media company 11:11. Together we're going to create a launchpad for new initiatives in video and… pic.twitter.com/7ctohyn3Nb
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) October 2, 2023
Hilton’s move is a huge blow given that X CEO Linda Yaccarino, a former NBCUniversal advertising chief who has been tasked with wooing advertisers back to the platform, announced the deal just last month.
“The queen of pop culture, music, business, and TV is #Sliving on X. Paris Hilton, welcome to the X family,” Ms Yaccarino wrote in the painfully Gen Z tweet.
“We’re excited to launch an official partnership with you and your next-gen media company 11:11. Together we’re going to create a launch pad for new initiatives in video and live video, live commerce, Spaces, and so much more. Let’s do this!!”
A glitzy video of Hilton at various events, describing her as an “icon”, “mogul” and “international DJ”, accompanied the announcement.
X, for its part, has sued Media Matters for its report, alleging it “maliciously” tried to drive away advertisers.
In response, Media Matters president Angelo Carusone said: “Far from the free speech advocate he claims to be, Musk is a bully who threatens meritless lawsuits in an attempt to silence reporting that he even confirmed is accurate.
“Musk admitted the ads at issue ran alongside the pro-Nazi content we identified.
“If he does sue us, we will win.”
Originally published as Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media suspends advertising on Twitter in latest blow to Elon Musk’s platform
