X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, typically earns the most money in the last months of the year, as brands ramp up their advertising campaigns for the holiday shopping season. According to The New York Times, though, the company's earnings report for this quarter might look different than usual. Based on internal documents The Times has seen, over 100 brands and even other types of advertisers, such as political candidates, have fully paused their ads on the website, while dozens more are considering pulling their campaigns. If advertisers don't come back, X could lose up to $75 million in ad revenue earnings this year. 

The documents reportedly track how X would be affected by brands leaving the website, including the first ones that paused their ads shortly after Elon Musk's controversial tweet, wherein he agreed with an antisemitic conspiracy theory. Shortly after he posted his tweet, media watchdog Media Matters published a report showing ads on the website right next to antisemitic content. In response, X filed a lawsuit against the organization, accusing it of "knowingly and maliciously [manufacturing] side-by-side images depicting advertisers' posts on X Corp.'s social media platform beside Neo-Nazi and white national fringe content."

X said in its complaint that Media Matters deliberately created an environment to show ads from some of the platform's biggest advertisers next to "extreme, fringe content." Linda Yaccarino, the company's CEO, defended X in a post and said that only two users saw Apple's ad next to unpalatable content on the platform. One of them was Media Matters, she added. The organization called X's lawsuit "frivolous" in a statement to Engadget and said it looks forward to winning in court. 

IBM, Apple and Disney were among the brands that quickly pulled their ads from X after the incidents. Lionsgate specifically cited Musk's tweet as its reason for suspending its advertising campaigns, while Ubisoft was one of the first video game companies to withdraw its ads from X. According to The Times' report, Airbnb has halted over $1 million worth of advertising on X, and Netflix has pulled $3 million in ads. X could also lose $4 million in ad revenue due to Microsoft's subsidiaries pausing their campaigns. Uber and Coca-Cola are two other well-known brands that have chosen to put their advertising on X on hold. 

In a statement to the publication, the company said the figures it viewed were either outdated or "represented an internal exercise to evaluate total risk." It also said that the revenue at risk was only around $11 million and that the exact amount keeps fluctuating as some advertisers return or increase their ad spending. 

Ubisoft is the latest company to join what seems to be a growing list of advertisers pulling their campaigns from Elon Musk's X, formerly known as Twitter. The company has confirmed to PCGamer and Axios that it has paused advertising on the website, possibly making it the first video game publisher to do so. While Ubisoft didn't elaborate on its reasoning behind the decision, X's advertisers have been suspending their advertising activities on the social network after Musk supported an antisemitic tweet and Media Matters published a research showing brands' advertisements next to Nazi content. 

IBM, Apple, Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros, Sony and Comcast have all paused their advertising on X. Lionsgate pulled its ads, as well, specifically citing Musk's tweet as the cause. Axios says Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Nexus VR ad campaign was still showing up for X users as recently as Monday morning, and it's unclear if it stopped advertising on the social network before or after Linda Yaccarino published a statement calling Media Matters' report "misleading and manipulated." 

X's CEO issued a call for users and advertisers to "stand with X," claiming that "not a single authentic user on [the website] saw IBM's, Comcast's, or Oracle's ads next to the content in Media Matters’' article." Shortly after that, X officially filed a lawsuit against the media watchdog, accusing it of "knowingly and maliciously manufactur[ing] side-by-side images depicting advertisers' posts on X Corp.'s social media platform beside Neo-Nazi and white national fringe content." 

In its complaint, X explained that Media Matters had to create the right conditions, which included following accounts that post fringe Neo-Nazi and white nationalist content, in order to see ads right next to antisemitic posts. 

Media Matters called the lawsuit "frivolous" and an attempt to "bully X's critics into silence" in a statement sent to Engadget. The organization also told us that it "stands behind its reporting and looks forward to winning in court."