Advertising revenues declining
Musks X introduces new people responsible for safety
April 3, 2024, 2:42 a.m
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Hate speech and extremist content cause business partners to turn away from X. As a result, the platform loses important advertising revenue. A new safety manager is now supposed to take care of the problem and another is supposed to make the service more attractive again.
Elon Musk’s Twitter successor X has found new managers to make the platform safer for users and companies. Kylie McRoberts will address the issue of hate speech and other extremist content as Head of Safety. In addition, Yale Cohen should make the service more attractive for companies, as X announced. Cohen comes from the advertising industry.
Hate speech is also a business problem for X. The service relies on advertising revenue – and companies do not want their brands to appear next to posts with calls for violence or anti-Semitic slogans. Since Musk took over Twitter in fall 2022, advertising revenue has halved. The tech billionaire promised radical freedom of speech at He relies on severely restricting the distribution of posts with problematic content instead of removing them.
Demos because of anti-Semitic contributions
Since the takeover, two safety managers have already left. A few months ago, online researchers demonstrated how advertising from well-known brands can appear alongside anti-Semitic posts. Musk countered that the examples were artificially constructed and did not correspond to everyday use. Several large advertising customers have now reduced their spending on X or have stopped spending altogether. X boss Linda Yaccarino, appointed by Musk, tries to convince them that the platform offers a safe environment for their brands.
Musk, meanwhile, insulted renegade advertisers during an appearance a few months ago, claiming they would be to blame if X failed. Musk, who is politically aligned with the American right, attacks the Disney company and its boss Bob Iger particularly violently. The X owner himself caused a scandal when he described a post with an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory as “actual truth”. Musk later said it was a mistake and misunderstanding and apologized. X emphasized that freedom of speech and security must coexist in the service.