Fear is helping fuel ad growth at X, formerly Twitter, according to analysis by Emarketer.
Elon Musk, the social media platform's owner, is now a major advisor, and influencer, within the Trump administration in the US.
Many of the bigger advertisers pulled out of X on band safety concerns when content moderation controls were eased.
"X’s ad business is recovering, but it’s too soon to call it a rebound," said principal analyst Jasmine Enberg.
"Even as some advertisers have returned and new advertisers have started spending, X’s ad business will still be smaller in 2025 than it was in 2019.
"Some of this year’s growth is also being driven by fear. Many advertisers may view spending on X as a cost of doing business in order to mitigate potential legal or financial repercussions.
"But fear is not a sustainable motivator and the situation remains volatile, partly as some consumers’ discontent toward Musk grows."
However, fear isn’t the only factor driving growth. X has also managed to secure a new base of advertisers, including small and medium sized businesses, which Twitter has struggled with.
"Meta’s content moderation pivot could also help justify some advertisers’ decision to return to X, just as Musk’s dismantling of Twitter’s content guardrails helped justify their decision to pull those ads in 2022 and 2023," said Enberg.
"Unlike X, Meta is an essential part of advertising budgets. While advertisers still care about brand safety, many are getting a reality check that they may not have as much control over where and how their ads show up as they thought.
"The kind of hateful and controversial content that prompted advertisers to flee X is no more acceptable, but there is a sense that it could become unavoidable."
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