The Australian government spent nearly $3m of taxpayer dollars advertising on Twitter/X in the first year after the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, took over the platform, despite warnings of brand reputation damage that caused the government to initially pause ads.
Data obtained by Guardian Australia, after a protracted freedom of information battle with the federal finance department, revealed $2.7m was spent between November 2022 and November 2023. Musk finalised his purchase of the platform on 28 October 2022.
The data covers all ad spending on government department campaigns including health advisories and messaging around budget initiatives. In 2022-2023 this included advertising around the voice referendum and vaccine advertisements, among others.
The spending comes despite the government pausing ad spend on what was then called Twitter on 29 September 2022, following reports of a number of brands’ advertisements appearing next to inappropriate content on Twitter, a report from the Australian National Audit Office revealed last week.
A spokesperson for the finance department said it was suspended “to evaluate brand safety measures” and restored shortly after.
“Following further review, the government’s master media agency that manages advertising placement advised that sufficient brand safety measures were in place and advertising could return to the platform on 5 October 2022 with the exception of placements on Twitter profiles,” the spokesperson said.
The following year’s data – accounting for the shift when Musk became a full-throated supporter of Donald Trump – is being withheld until January 2026. The department said in its decision that releasing the data now would weaken the government’s ability to negotiate with media on advertising.
Sources have told Guardian Australia the total ad spend for the year is similar to 2022-23.
Axel Bruns, professor in the Digital Media Research Centre at Queensland University of Technology, said the spend could reflect the uncertainty the government had around whether the platform would continue to be popular under Musk’s leadership.
“With hindsight, there now seems little value in government advertising on X – the platform is overrun with disinformation, abuse, hate speech and spam bots, and most sensible users will have left by now,” he said.
“This might not have been as clear at the time when this advertising was purchased, though.”
Bruns said any continued government advertising on X is “unlikely to make its desired impact on audiences” but could be seen to be soft diplomacy to win favour with the Trump administration, but said it would not be a “useful investment” given the reputation damage to continue to advertise on X in its current form.
The continued ad spend comes despite Musk describing the Albanese government as “fascist” over its now-abandoned misinformation legislation, and engaging in several legal battles with the Australian online safety regulator over content moderation on X, one of which was heard in the administrative review tribunal last week.
Musk has become inexorably entwined with Trump and subsequently the new US administration in the past few months. Prior to running the US government’s department of government efficiency (Doge) tasked with slashing government programs and spending, Musk became Trump’s biggest campaign donor in the 2024 presidential election, and invested millions in his failed attempt to have a conservative judge win the Wisconsin supreme court’s election last week.
Musk’s personal popularity has tanked this year, as a result, with a recent poll finding more than half of Americans believed Musk and Doge were harming the US.
The finance department, which collects data from every government agency on ad spending, does not typically break down spending on individual platforms. Total digital ad spending for 2022-2023 was $56.3m. Guardian Australia filed a freedom of information request with the finance department for data specifically on X spending last year, but was initially refused.
After seeking a review of the decision by the Australian information commissioner, the finance department agreed to release the first year of data this week.
X was contacted for comment.
