Elon Musk is trying to win back advertisers who have hit pause on Twitter over fears that hate speech will return to the social media platform as Elon Musk’s takeover continues to sow chaos.
Hate speech on the platform ballooned after Musk’s purchase, and previously banned users immediately began clamoring for reinstatement, undoubtedly making advertisers nervous.
General Motors, Volkswagen, General Mills, and Pfizer are among the major corporations that have stopped advertising on Twitter since Musk bought it a week ago for $44 billion.
The vast majority of Twitter’s revenue comes from advertising, and the new boss was not happy to see the bottom line drying up and is now threatening to “name and shame” advertisers if they continue to boycott Twitter over hate speech.
“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,” Musk tweeted Friday morning.
“Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America,” Musk complained.
Musk’s rant about their abandonment led conservative operative Mike Davis to tweet at the new owner: “Name and shame the advertisers who are succumbing to the advertiser boycotts. So we can counter-boycott them.”
The idea, apparently, is that Musk’s fans would boycott those companies until they agree to start advertising on Twitter again.
“Thank you. A thermonuclear name & shame is exactly what will happen if this continues,” Musk replied.
The billionaire’s threat seems unlikely to calm corporate jitters and bring advertisers back.
The development comes during a week of utter tumult, with Musk firing top executives and board members, launching massive layoffs, and announcing a plan to charge verified users $8 a month to keep their blue check marks.
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022
Thank you.
A thermonuclear name & shame is exactly what will happen if this continues.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022
Musk is also trying to reassure advertisers that content moderation will continue on the platform.
Again, to be crystal clear, Twitter’s strong commitment to content moderation remains absolutely unchanged.
In fact, we have actually seen hateful speech at times this week decline *below* our prior norms, contrary to what you may read in the press.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022
