Meta and YouTube reverse course, will run ads for Elon Musk documentary after rejecting them

Meta and YouTube said Saturday they will run paid advertisements for 'Musk,' Alex Gibney's documentary about Elon Musk, reversing rejections that had briefly blocked the film's trailer from four of the largest social media platforms simultaneously.

This was an error and the ads are being restored.— Meta spokesperson

The 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.— YouTube

The reversals came a day after The Hollywood Reporter published a story Friday reporting that TikTok, Meta, YouTube, and X had all refused to run paid ads promoting the trailer, with each platform pointing to its 'political content' policies as the reason. The film's U.S. distributor, Bleecker Street, had appealed the rejections, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

TikTok and X had not responded to requests for comment as of Saturday, leaving their positions unresolved. X's refusal carries a distinct logic: Musk owns the platform and has publicly described Gibney as someone whose work is worth less than 'dogshit,' according to TechCrunch. According to TheWrap, Musk has also threatened to take legal action against the documentary, which alleges that he used his Starlink satellites to shape the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.

The central question raised by the initial wave of rejections — how a documentary trailer qualifies as campaign advertising — was never clearly answered by the platforms. Meta has said it will stop accepting political ads in the European Union; TikTok says it does not run them at all, according to TechCrunch. Neither policy obviously covers a theatrical film trailer.

Among Gibney's previous documentaries are 'Going Clear,' an examination of the Church of Scientology, and 'The Inventor,' which focused on Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. 'Musk,' his latest, premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in early September and currently holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, according to TechCrunch. The nearly four-hour film includes interviews with ex-wife Justine Musk and Ashley St. Clair, a former right-wing influencer who recently had a child with Musk and now describes him as 'a nuke,' according to TechCrunch.

The ad dispute is not the only distribution headache surrounding the film. The Hollywood Reporter also reported that Universal Pictures was wavering in its commitment to distribute 'Musk' internationally, reportedly due to fear of angering the Trump administration. According to TechCrunch, Universal has since confirmed it will put the documentary in theaters, though the company is still finalizing its release strategy.

Bleecker Street is set to bring 'Musk' to U.S. theaters on October 9.

Why it matters — The episode shows how platform moderation systems — and platform ownership — can rapidly suppress or restore the reach of journalism and documentary film about powerful public figures, with little transparency about how those decisions are made.

Reported by techcrunch.com, hollywoodreporter.com, thewrap.com