Since Elon Musk took the helm of Twitter, the platform has already experienced profound changes, including a change in policy, the departure of half of the employees, but also that of the advertisers.
As Elon Musk just fired half of Twitter’s employees and most said their goodbyes on the platform itself, Musk revealed that brands have started pulling their ads, leading to what he called a ” massive drop in income “. Indeed, General Mills, General Motors, Volkswagen or Pfizer are among the big companies that have stopped advertising on Twitter since Musk bought it a week ago for $44 billion.
According to him, those responsible are none other than activists, who intentionally scare away advertisers. ” Twitter has seen a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, while nothing has changed with content moderation and we’ve done everything we can to appease activists ,” Musk tweeted Friday morning.
Advertisers flee Twitter
Elon Musk’s tweet followingan open letter sent by a group of more than 40 organizationsincluding the NAACP and GLAAD, calling on Twitter’s 20 largest advertisers to stop funding the platform because they claim that Musk’s proposed changes will drown out their voices or allow hate, harassment or fake content to thrivest. The letter claims that Musk’s ownership of Twitter has allowed the platform to be ” flooded with hate and misinformation “.
Most advertisers are wary of potential changes in Twitter’s policies as well as the departure of senior executives. Various industry groups have also expressed concern about brand safety under Musk.
The situation would be quite tense for the billionaire, who must manage to convince advertisers to stabilize the platform’s income. To make matters worse, IPG, one of the largest advertising companies in the world, reportedly issued a recommendation for customers to temporarily pause their spending on Twitter.
Elon Musk strongly defends the changes put in place on Twitter
Contrary to what several media assert, Elon Musk maintains that ” Twitter’s strong commitment to content moderation remains absolutely unchanged “. The billionaire even announces that he has noticed that hate speech has gone down “ below » previous standards since the takeover.
Indeed, according to the company Bot Sentinel, which tracks inauthentic behavior on Twitter by analyzing more than 3.1 million accounts and their activity daily, many accounts have already been deactivated or suspended on the platform. According to their research, approximately 877,000 accounts were deactivated and another 497,000 suspended between October 27 and November 1. This is more than double the usual number.
Among them, many users who do not carry Elon Musk in their hearts, but these would basically be fake accounts used for spam or online scams. We know that the billionaire had officially declared war on fake accounts before the takeover, and it seems that Twitter’s moderation efforts are starting to pay off.
Regarding the layoffs, Elon Musk justified this decision by stating “ unfortunately there is no choice when the company loses more than $4M/day. All terminated employees were offered 3 months of severance pay, 50% more than legally required “. In emails notifying employees of the decision, it is actually written that they will continue to receive their salary until February 2023.
Elon Musk has already many plans up his sleeve to boost the company’s profits, including charging $8 per month for certification. However, a TechRadar report revealed that Elon Musk no longer intended to verify the identities of users before granting them certification, which could become very dangerous. It remains to be seen how the billionaire intends to convince advertisers to return to his platform.