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YouTuber Brody Foxx has accused a former Kick employee of being involved in propagating undisclosed Stake ads on the social media website X. Brody has also encouraged his followers to report such instances to the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission, claiming that the alleged undisclosed ads violate antitrust laws.
In an X post on November 29, 2024, Brody Foxx accused the company named Weekdays of "facilitating" Stake ads on social media. The YouTuber has further claimed that one of the co-founders of the company, Adi Manohara, is a former employee of Kick, the streaming platform under Stake, and was the head of Kick Partnerships for eight months.
In a post, Brody Foxx wrote:
"These ads are mostly facilitated by @/weekdays. The co-founder, Adi Manohara, was the former head of KICK partnerships for about 8 months."
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What is the undisclosed Stake ad controversy on X? Brody Foxx's allegations explored
Brody Foxx's post accusing the former head of Kick partnership was interestingly part of a reply to a different post complaining about the ads. For context, a part of the community on X pointed out that certain users were resharing streaming clips and photos with a Stake banner.
Many such posts were flagged by the community notes feature on the platform for being ads — not only for being supposed undisclosed ads for Stake but also noting that Stake is a gambling platform and promotion of such content on X is prohibited in certain countries.
Readers should note that the social media giant does allow the promotion of online casinos in the United States with restrictions, but the major complaint is that the advertisements on the posts do not follow the guidelines set by X.
As noted by a screenshot shared by user @EvanMonroe12, posts that have the Stake banner need to have adequate disclaimers openly disclosing that it is sponsored by the gambling website. A part of the community note reads:
"This video includes and undisclosed ad for Stake, in violation of this platform's policies for undisclosed promotions or advertisements for gambling services. The inclusion of an 'ad' hashtag does not negate this."
Regardless, Max Broddy has announced that he will be sharing an easy way for his followers to report the ads to the FTC:
"Tomorrow I'm dropping a guide to report undisclosed Stake ads to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). They're the US gov body that regulates influencer sponsorship guidelines. It only takes ~100 folks to file a complaint and have it brought to their attention." claimed Brody Foxx in a post on November 29.
In related news, popular YouTube streamer Valkyrae noted that clips of content featuring her have been used by bad-faith actors spreading misinformation on X with the Stake banner as well.
