The World Bank has stopped all paid advertising on Elon Musk’s social media platform Xformerly Twitter, after a CBS News investigation found that sponsored ads from the organization appeared under a racist post from an account that frequently posts pro-Nazi and white nationalist content.

CBS News found a verified X account with more than 115,000 followers that posted a racist image alongside a post praising Europe’s colonization of Africa. CBS News does not publicly identify the accounts that share racist content on X.

A sponsored advertisement from the World Bank appeared in the comments section below the post.

“The World Bank Group has already reduced its paid marketing on X while it works with the platform to implement the most stringent security protocols that X offers for our content,” a World Bank spokesperson told CBS News on Friday, adding, “This latest incident is completely unacceptable and we are immediately stopping all paid marketing on X.”

CBS News reached out to X for comment on the World Bank’s withdrawal from the platform, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

The account has shared dozens of anti-Semitic and racist posts in the past week alone, and CBS News found advertisements from numerous companies under several of the account’s posts as it shared pro-Nazi content, including a post that showed an archive video of Adolf Hitler with the caption “We defeated the wrong enemy.” That post has been viewed more than two million times on the platform, according to X’s own statistics.

CBS News found over a dozen accounts on X that use the blue checkmark to indicate “verification” by the platform. They have large followings, regularly post white nationalist or pro-Nazi content, and display advertisements for well-known brands in their comment threads.

X’s hate behavior policy states that users “must not attack other people based on race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious illness.” It states that the platform prohibits any attacks on individuals or groups using media that references or depicts the Holocaust or “symbols historically associated with hate groups, such as the Nazi swastika.”

An ad from Saudia Airlines, the national carrier of Saudi Arabia, appeared under the same post as the World Bank ad. CBS News has reached out to Saudia Airlines for comment on the placement of the ad and how the airline decides whether and how to spend money on the platform.

Public court documents unsealed on Tuesday revealed that Kingdom Holdings, a conglomerate run by members of the Saudi royal family, is a major investor in the X platform. Saudia Airlines is owned by the government of Saudi Arabia.

In at least five cases, sponsored ads for the backpack company Nordace appeared under white nationalist or pro-Nazi posts on X. This included an ad for a Nordace backpack under a post by another verified account with 161,000 followers.

The thread shared by the account contained pro-Nazi posts that said, “Anti-Semites will save the world” and “Weimar problems require Weimar solutions,” with the phrase “Weimar problems” painted in the colors of the LGBTQ rainbow flag. The Weimar Republic was a name used for Germany under Hitler.

The Canadian company Nordace describes its core values ​​on its website as “Respect people” and “Leave a positive impression”.

CBS News has asked Nordace for comment on the placement of its ads on X and how the company determines its advertising spend on the platform.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has dismantled Safeguards on the platform since its acquisition of then-Twitter in October 2022 – including dramatic changes to the verification system and the dissolution of the Trust and Safety Advisory Group, as well as changes to broader content moderation and hate speech enforcement.

Musk has developed a system where X’s algorithms favor accounts that pay for the platform’s Blue Check subscription service. According to X’s own marketing for its verification service, X Premium offers “response prioritization” to all subscribers.

Changes Musk has made to X’s business model since he bought the company have allowed influencers who buy the company’s verification subscription to monetize their content. Subscribers are eligible to receive a share of ad revenue for their content if they “have at least 5 million organic impressions for cumulative posts within the last 3 months” and “have at least 500 followers.”

According to the platform’s terms of service, accounts can do this without revealing their identity publicly, provided the account holder privately shares their ID with the platform.

“X allows the use of pseudonymous accounts, which means that an account’s profile is not required to use the account holder’s name or image. Accounts that appear similar to others on X do not violate this policy as long as their purpose is not to deceive or manipulate others,” the platform’s own guidelines state.

All verified X accounts reviewed by CBS News would be eligible to receive a share of the company’s advertising revenue, according to the company’s policies.

One account with more than half a million followers that frequently shared anti-Semitic posts even boasted about its earnings on X.

In a March post, the account shared a screenshot purporting to show earnings from X’s advertising revenue share program for verified accounts. The screenshot was accompanied by the caption: “X is about to overtake TikTok with monetization and change the entire social media landscape. I’m not sure if live streaming made the difference or if X increased their revenue share, but I’m getting closer to the point where I can live off of X.”

CBS News has asked X for comment on whether the verified accounts profit from their content and how it is decided which verified accounts should receive advertising and revenue.

The account under which the Nordace ad appeared had shared several anti-Semitic posts, including one that said: “Our country is controlled by an international criminal organization that emerged from the Jewish mob and now hides behind the accusation of ‘anti-Semitism’ in modern Zionism.”

While no sponsored ads appeared under this specific post, ads appeared under other posts from the account, including some that spread conspiracy theories and disinformation.

In recent months, Musk has even increased engagement for this particular X-account as it spread a baseless conspiracy theory that influential media personalities wanted to take American children away from their parents. In July, the account shared an out-of-context clip of an old MSNBC commercial with the caption: “The goal IS to take your children away from you. They say it openly. That’s why we have the Second Amendment.”

Musk responded to the post in question, which, according to X’s statistics, has been viewed 4.3 million times, with “absolutely.”

Musk also repeatedly interacted with another verified account that has nearly 366,000 followers. As recently as Friday morning, there was an interaction between the tech mogul and the account.

This account has repeatedly touted the so-called “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, a baseless claim by the far right that the white European population is being demographically and culturally replaced by non-whites.

Last week, the account posted the unsubstantiated claim that “there is a war on white people going on and the mainstream media and politicians are ‘ignoring’ it.”

Paid ads were also displayed under this post.

CBS News asked X’s press office whether the company was OK with the platform owner using such content, but no response was received by press time.

In an October 2022 post, Musk had vowed that X’s new policy would be “freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach.” “Negative/hate tweets will be downvoted and demonetized to the maximum, so no advertising or other revenue for Twitter,” he said, adding that such content would be undiscoverable “unless you specifically search for it, which is no different across the rest of the internet.”