The Brief – Monday 12 January: X revenues plummet, Beehiiv doubles ad sales effort, Spotify no longer running ICE ads

Welcome to the Brief, The Media Leader’s round-up of media news.

🚫 The government has urged Ofcom to use all its powers — including a potential ban — against X amid the continued Grok nudification scandal. Prime Minister Keir Starmer separately vowed to “take action”, calling Grok’s AI-generated nudes and CSAM “simply not tolerable”. (BBC)

📉 Meanwhile, X’s UK revenues fell 58.3% to £28.9m in 2024, according to Companies House figures, while pre-tax profits fell from £2.2m to £767,000. The sharply worse performance was a result of a decline in ad revenue driven by large advertisers leaving over “concerns about brand safety, reputation, and/or content moderation.” (The Guardian)

📱 Separately, BBC director general Tim Davie told MPs he has rejected calls for the broadcaster to boycott X, insisting the Corporation had a responsibility to counter misinformation on the platform. (The Guardian)

🐝 Newsletter platform Beehiiv has doubled its ad sales team as part of an effort to scale its business and give creators wider monetisation options beyond subscription revenue. (Adweek)

🎧 Spotify is no longer running ads for US Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE) after its ad campaign ended. The platform received criticism for doing so last year as part of the Trump administration’s wider advertising-led recruitment effort. Other platforms that accepted ads for ICE included Hulu, HBO Max, YouTube, Pandora, Google and YouTube. (Variety)