Elon Musk said on Friday that Twitter has seen a “massive drop in revenue” as a growing number of advertisers stop spending on the platform following its $44 billion acquisition.
“Twitter has had a huge drop in revenue due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we’ve done everything we can to appease activists,” he said in a tweet. “Extremely confusing! They are trying to destroy free speech in America.”
The statements come as brands including General Mills and Volkswagen Group halt advertising on the social network and as civil society groups called on Twitter’s advertisers to halt all spending globally, citing uncertainty over the company’s direction under Mask
“We have stopped advertising on Twitter,” Kelsey Roemhildt, a spokeswoman for General Mills, told CNN in a statement, making it the first company that doesn’t compete with Musk’s Tesla to confirm such a move. “As always, we will continue to monitor this new direction and evaluate our marketing spend,” the spokesperson said.
In a separate statement, Volkswagen Group, which owns Audi, Porsche and Bentley, confirmed it had advised its brands to “cease their paid activities on the platform until further notice”.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the moves, also reported that Pfizer and Mondalez are stopping ads on Twitter. The companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The companies join General Motors, which previously said it would stop paying for ads on Twitter while it evaluates the platform’s “new direction.” Toyota, another Tesla competitor, told CNN it was “in discussions with key stakeholders and monitoring the situation” on Twitter.
On Friday, organizations including the Anti-Defamation League, Free Press and GLAAD stepped up their campaign to pressure more brands to reconsider advertising on Twitter. The groups pointed to Twitter’s mass layoffs on Friday as a key factor in their thinking, citing fears that Musk’s cuts would render Twitter’s electoral integrity policies essentially unenforceable, even if they technically remain active.
After months of uncertainty surrounding Musk’s pending buyout, advertisers now face questions about how Musk will change the platform, which is already a fixture in the digital ad space despite its massive political influence. Musk, known as both an innovative entrepreneur and a volatile figure, has promised to review Twitter’s content moderation policies and reverse permanent bans on controversial figures, including former President Donald Trump.
This creates a challenge for brands, who are sensitive to the types of content their ads are served, an issue made more complex by social media. Most marketers think that their ads will run alongside toxic content such as hate speech, pornography or misinformation.
Ad-buying giant Interpublic Group, which works with consumer brands such as Unilever and Coca Cola, earlier this week also advised its clients to stop advertising on the platform.
Musk said he is not a fan of advertising and is currently working to boost Twitter’s subscription revenue to boost results and become less dependent on ad sales, which account for 90% of Twitter’s total revenue. But that change won’t happen overnight, if at all. Musk has said he plans to launch an $8-a-month subscription program that will give users a verification badge, as well as several other perks, but the plans have faced strong backlash.
Meanwhile, Musk is working to prevent a potential exodus from advertisers. Musk’s team spent Monday “meeting with the marketing and advertising community” in New York, according to Jason Kalakanis, a member of Musk’s inner circle.
Musk also met earlier this week with a group of civil society leaders, including the ADL, Free Press and NAACP, to address concerns about the rise of hate on the platform. Representatives who attended the meeting told CNN they were encouraged by Musk’s willingness to talk and his initial pledges not to change the company’s content policies before the midterms, but called on him to take further steps to protect the platform.
Since meeting with Musk, spokespeople for some of the same organizations said, Twitter’s new owner has displayed “erratic” behavior that has “betrayed” the commitments he made privately to the groups.
Shortly before news broke last week that his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter was complete, Musk wrote an open letter trying to reassure advertisers that he doesn’t want the social network to become a “free-for-all.”
“At its core, Twitter aspires to be the world’s most respected advertising platform that strengthens your brand and grows your business,” he wrote. “Let’s make something extraordinary together.”
– CNN’s Brian Fung, Peter Valdes-Dapena and Jon Passantino contributed to this report.
