On Thursday, September 24, independent distributor Bleecker Street released a trailer for the documentary “Musk” and, according to industry practice, paid major platforms to run ads. The next day, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that YouTube, TikTok, and Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram) all refused to run the ad, citing “political content” as the reason. Musk’s own platform, X, was even more resolute—not only did it refuse to run the ad, it also refused to engage with the distributor entirely, and it rejected ads for other films as well from Bleecker Street’s subsequent slate.
So what “political” content is actually in the trailer? According to reporters who saw the trailer, there is only one shot of a 2024 campaign rally throughout the entire piece, plus a single reference to the 2024 election in the closing line. For a political-themed documentary, this is almost standard fare—it neither endorses any candidate nor involves any electioneering or voter mobilization. The Hollywood Reporter said outright that the trailer “doesn’t appear to be one of the election ads the rules are trying to stop.”
So what “political” content is actually in the trailer? According to reporters who saw the trailer, there is only one shot of a 2024 campaign rally throughout the entire piece, plus a single reference to the 2024 election in the closing line. For a political-themed documentary, this is almost standard fare—it neither endorses any candidate nor involves any electioneering or voter mobilization. The Hollywood Reporter said outright that the trailer “doesn’t appear to be one of the election ads the rules are trying to stop.”