CENSOR SENSIBILITY

Damning Elon Musk Film Hit With Shocking Censorship

Musk’s power is the subject of Alex Gibney’s new documentary—and apparently the reason some platforms don’t want to advertise it.

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 have all refused to run paid advertisements for Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney’s new four-hour documentary Musk, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The film’s independent distributor, Bleecker Street, has been told by several platforms that the content violates their bans on “political content,” even though it promotes a movie trailer—not a candidate or political campaign.

YouTube, TikTok, and Meta have reportedly blocked Bleecker Street’s ads, claiming the trailer breaches 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.

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Bleecker Street has appealed the platforms’ decisions. Meta has already rejected the appeal, while TikTok and YouTube are 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 social media wall now helping to shield Musk underscores a key point in the film: the tech mogul is so alarmingly wealthy and powerful that he wields enormous influence over what the public sees and learns.

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“I do worry about the storm clouds on the horizon,” Gibney admitted while promoting 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 Meta, 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.

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Mary PapenfussReporter

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