“Scamvertising” is a growing threat—and X is the latest platform facing legal action over it.
Mediahuis Ireland, the country’s largest media conglomerate and publisher of the Irish Independent, Sunday Independent, Sunday World, and Belfast Telegraph, announced yesterday that it is suing Elon Musk-owned X over “the proliferation of scam advertisements designed to look like genuine news articles.” The lawsuit alleges trademark and copyright infringement.
The issue stems from links to fake articles featuring the Irish Independent’s logo and fabricated bylines impersonating a real journalist. These were allegedly used to promote crypto scams, effectively creating two layers of fraud.
X reportedly removed nine user accounts involved in the scheme, but Mediahuis argues that more action is needed to protect its reputation as a trusted news source.
Why This Matters:
Brand safety has been an ongoing challenge for X, but the platform has yet to fully address the rampant crypto scams that plague it. Nearly every day, a new meme coin or fraudulent crypto scheme emerges, threatening everyday users financially. With the current administration unlikely to enforce strict regulations on crypto, it’s unclear if X will take a more proactive stance. (These concerns could be heightened by the integration of payments directly into X.)
Beyond X, scam ads tied to crypto and other schemes are on the rise. As we reported last year, malvertising—where bad actors inject malicious code into ad networks—has become a growing cybersecurity threat. Confiant reports that 1 in every 79 ad impressions contains security or quality issues, with U.S. consumers losing over $12.5 billion annually to malicious ads.
The shift to programmatic has exacerbated the problem, making it easier for bad actors to slip fraudulent ads through automated systems. Platforms ranging from SSPs to Meta struggle to vet each ad before it reaches users. Hell, malvertisers are even using ad data to better target victims. It’s probably safe to assume that social media platforms, particularly those loosening content moderation policies, are also increasingly vulnerable to these threats.
Experts React:
Here’s the Group Head of News at Mediahuis, and the Executive Editor of the Irish Independent, posting about the lawsuit on… X. (Is this a good or bad decision?)
Our Take:
X has been on a roll lately, landing some big wins, but the crypto scam problem is a concrete and obvious liability—arguably more so than broader “safety” concerns. There’s a distinction between freedom of speech, freedom of reach, and the coordinated manipulation of X’s ecosystem by crypto scammers. These bad actors flood the platform with fraudulent ads, as seen in this case, and hijack trending topics to promote dubious coins and assets at scale, something most X users would likely agree is a problem. (Especially as X does more in financial services.) More action needs to be taken.
