More firms pull ads from Breitbart

The Breitbart News Network has long prided itself on running inflammatory articles designed to trigger sensitive liberals. But since the election of Donald Trump, the conservative media company has also managed to trigger some of its advertisers, which have yanked their ads from the irreverent site in objection to its content.

After recent decisions by companies such as the Kellogg Co. and Allstate to pull their ads, a number of German companies have followed suit, including BMW, T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom and the restaurant chain Vapiano.

They didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Their decisions come as Breitbart, which supported Trump in his bid for the U.S. presidency, is aiming to expand its operations into Germany as the country prepares for elections next year amid high tensions over the migrant crisis. Breitbart has been critical of Chancellor Angela Merkel and her open-door policy toward refugees.

Some advertisers have said they didn’t know that their ads ran on Breitbart, and that they discovered it only after receiving screenshots from consumers and Twitter users. Many companies rely on third-party ad networks and exchanges to place ads on sites. As a result, they aren’t always aware of where their ads end up appearing.

In recent weeks, a number of antiBreitbart efforts have emerged on Twitter — including the account Sleeping Giants and the German hashtag #KeinGeldFuerRechts (No Money for the Right) — that are aiming to pressure companies whose ads appear on Breitbart into boycotting the site. Sleeping Giants has said Breitbart is a fake news site that engages in racist rhetoric. In response, Breitbart says activists are intolerant of conservative views and attempting to censor them.

Breitbart has stated that advertisers would be unwise to boycott the site because it has a loyal following of 45 million readers. The news site didn’t respond to a request for comment.