(The Guardian) Musk: Twitter revenue has slumped as "activist groups pressure advertisers"
Elon Musk has tweeted that Twitter has seen a slump in revenue due to “activist groups” putting pressure on advertisers.
He says: “Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists,.”
It’s true that some major companies have put advertising on pause, such as General Mills and General Motors, and now Volkswagen. But as Kari Paul writes, that reflects concerns about how Musk will run Twitter: The growing exodus of advertisers comes amid concerns Musk will scale back misinformation and security protections on the platform. As civil rights groups call potential moderation issues into question, companies are considering whether staying on Twitter might tarnish their brands.
Shortly before taking over the San Francisco company last week, Musk issued a vow to advertisers that he would not allow Twitter to become a “free-for-all hellscape,” an indication there would still be consequences for violators of its rules against harassment, violence or election and Covid-related misinformation.
But since then some users have posted racial slurs and recirculated long-debunked conspiracy theories in an apparent attempt to see if the site’s policies were still being enforced. The NAACP said this week it has expressed to Musk its concerns about “the dangerous, life-threatening hate and conspiracies that have proliferated on Twitter” under his watch.
Elon Musk has tweeted that Twitter has seen a slump in revenue due to “activist groups” putting pressure on advertisers.
He says: “Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists,.”
It’s true that some major companies have put advertising on pause, such as General Mills and General Motors, and now Volkswagen. But as Kari Paul writes, that reflects concerns about how Musk will run Twitter: The growing exodus of advertisers comes amid concerns Musk will scale back misinformation and security protections on the platform. As civil rights groups call potential moderation issues into question, companies are considering whether staying on Twitter might tarnish their brands.
Shortly before taking over the San Francisco company last week, Musk issued a vow to advertisers that he would not allow Twitter to become a “free-for-all hellscape,” an indication there would still be consequences for violators of its rules against harassment, violence or election and Covid-related misinformation.
But since then some users have posted racial slurs and recirculated long-debunked conspiracy theories in an apparent attempt to see if the site’s policies were still being enforced. The NAACP said this week it has expressed to Musk its concerns about “the dangerous, life-threatening hate and conspiracies that have proliferated on Twitter” under his watch.
