Following Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, so many big firms have halt their advertisements on the microblogging platform.
According to reports, these firms had to freeze their ads, as they express concerns about whether Musk’s ambition of ‘content filtering’ will pose a serious challenge to their advertisements.
Meanwhile, in a recent tweet made by Musk, he blamed a massive drop in Twitter revenue on activist groups pressuring advertisers, which he referred to an open letter sent by civil society organizations, urging Twitter advertisers to suspend their ads if he doesn’t commit to enforcing safety standards and community guidelines.
Musk however disclosed that nothing changed with content creation on the platform, noting that the company had done everything it could to appease activists, which he claims are out to destroy free speech in America.
He further revealed that he has made significant efforts to reassure advertisers that Twitter remains “brand safe,” publishing an open letter to advertisers saying that Twitter wouldn’t become a “free-for-all hellscape” and announcing plans to form a council to advise on content moderation.
His Tweet reads, “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. Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.”
Due to the increase in the freeze of ads by so many firms on the platform, Musk has disclosed that he will publicly name-shame Twitter advertisers who removed their ads after the company announced major layoffs.
He said on Twitter while replying to a user, “Thank you. A thermonuclear name & shame is exactly what will happen if this continues.”
On the other hand, so many advertisers are worried about the mass resignations rocking the company as they have deemed it fit to halt their ads, to understand where the micro-blogging platform is heading to.
American multinational automotive manufacturing company, General Motors is one of the many companies that have so far frozen their ads on the platform.
The company said, in order to better understand the direction of the platform, it has temporarily halted its Twitter advertising. The pause, according to GM, is a customary action when a media platform experiences a big modification.
Also, Audi and Pfizer have joined the growing list of companies that have temporarily paused their Twitter ads. Oreo maker Mondelez and Volkswagen are also reevaluating their ad spend with the network.
In a recent report by New York times, it revealed that IPG, one of the world’s largest advertising companies, with customers such as Spotify, Coca-Cola, American Express, amongst others, has issued a recommendation for clients to temporarily pause their spending on Twitter because of moderation concerns.
Although Twitter is by no means the largest platform used by marketers for digital marketing, it generates about 90 per cent of its revenue from advertisements.
