Social media powerhouses Meta and X have reportedly approved the display of advertisements that contain violent hate speech against Muslims and Jews, targeting German users in the lead up to the nation’s federal elections. This is according to fresh research spearheaded by Eko, a non-profit organization focusing on corporate responsibility campaigns.

The team of researchers at Eko carried out a series of tests to ascertain whether the ad-review systems of these two platforms would accept or decline submissions of ads that contained violent and hateful messages aimed at minorities. This exercise was carried out in the context of an election where the issue of immigration has become a prominent topic in political discourse. The test ads included those featuring anti-Muslim slurs, demands for immigrants to be incarcerated in concentration camps or gassed, as well as AI-generated visuals of mosques and synagogues on fire.

The majority of the test ads received approval within hours of submission for review in mid-February, with Germany’s federal elections scheduled for Sunday, February 23.

Eko reported that X gave the green light to all ten of the hate speech ads submitted by its researchers just days prior to the federal election, while Meta approved half of them for display on Facebook and potentially Instagram, rejecting the rest.

Interestingly, the five ads approved by Meta contained violent hate speech equating Muslim refugees to pests and criminals, and suggesting they should be violently dealt with. Despite the disturbing content, none of the AI-generated visuals used in the ads were labeled as artificially created.

On the other hand, X approved all five of these offensive ads, and an extra five that had similarly violent hate speech aimed at Muslims and Jews.

The researchers at Eko then deactivated all test ads before any of the approved ones were scheduled to run, ensuring no platform users were exposed to the violent hate speech. However, they noted that their tests revealed glaring issues with the ad platforms’ content moderation methods.

The results of these tests indicate that these ad platforms could be profiting from the distribution of violent hate speech.

Eko’s findings suggest that neither platform is properly enforcing their own policies which ban hate speech in ad content. These conclusions were reached after a similar test conducted in 2023, ahead of the introduction of new EU online governance rules.

Eko’s latest findings have been submitted to the European Commission, which oversees the enforcement of key aspects of the Digital Services Act (DSA) on these social media giants. However, neither company responded to the results.

The EU is currently investigating Meta and X under DSA, with concerns regarding election security and illegal content. However, decisions on any DSA sanctions are pending.

Meanwhile, civil society research suggests that the EU’s flagship online governance regulation has failed to protect the democratic process from various tech-fueled threats.

Eko’s spokesperson called for strong action from regulators in enforcing the DSA, as well as implementing pre-election mitigation measures to prevent the amplification of hateful content. The campaign group also warned of potential pressure from the Trump administration to soften the EU’s approach to regulating Big Tech.