Elon Musk’s extraordinary power is making it remarkably difficult to advertise a documentary about just how powerful Elon Musk has become.
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.
Bleecker Street appealed the platforms’ decisions. TikTok is still weighing whether to allow the ads, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
X is reportedly refusing to communicate with Bleecker Street, and has so far refused to accept advertising for any of its upcoming films.
Gibney’s documentary “depicts the world’s richest man as petty, narcissistic, megalomaniacal, cruel, [and] detached from humans at a personal level (including various ex-partners and many of his children),” according to Deadline’s Matthew Carey.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO slammed the film, which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival earlier this month, as a “hit piece,” and has threatened legal action.
The initial social media reluctance to promote the movie underscores one of its key points: the tech mogul is so alarmingly wealthy and powerful that he wields enormous influence over what the public sees and learns.
“I do worry about the storm clouds on the horizon,” Gibney admitted while discussing the film in Venice. He said he encountered a “tremendous sense of fear” among his Musk sources. “Many, many, many, many” people refused to speak out, he noted.
Universal is releasing the film overseas after reversing a decision to drop it following a public outcry.
The Daily Beast has reached out to TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and X for comment.
Musk will arrive in select theaters in New York and Los Angeles on Oct. 9, then roll out nationwide one week later.
