CNN –
Elon Musk said Friday that Twitter has seen a “massive drop in revenue” as a growing number of advertisers halt spending on the platform in the wake of its $44 billion acquisition.
“Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, although nothing has changed with content moderation and we did our best to appease activists,” he said in a tweet. . “Extremely messed up! They are trying to destroy free speech in America.”
The statements come as brands including General Mills and Volkswagen Group pause advertising on the social network and civil society organizations called on Twitter advertisers to halt all spending globally, citing uncertainty about the direction of the company under Musk.
“We have stopped advertising on Twitter,” General Mills spokeswoman Kelsey Roemhildt told CNN in a statement, becoming the first company that doesn’t compete with Musk’s Tesla to confirm the 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 “pause their payment activities on the platform until further notice”.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the moves, also said Pfizer and Mondalez are pausing 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 advertising on Twitter while it evaluates the platform’s “new direction.” Toyota, another Tesla competitor, previously told CNN it is “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 pressure campaign to get more brands to rethink advertising on Twitter. The groups pointed to Friday’s massive Twitter staff layoffs as a key factor in their thinking, citing fears that Musk’s cuts would make Twitter’s election integrity policies effectively unenforceable, even if they stand technically active.
After months of uncertainty surrounding Musk’s pending acquisition, advertisers now face questions about how Musk will change the platform, which is already present in the digital ad space despite its outsized political influence. Musk, known as both an innovative entrepreneur and an erratic figure, has promised to rethink Twitter’s content moderation policies and undo 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 come across, a problem that is further complicated by social media. Most marketers cringe at the thought of their ads running 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 pause advertising on the platform.
Musk has said he is not a fan of advertising and is currently working to increase Twitter’s subscription revenue to boost its bottom line and become less dependent on ad sales, which account for 90% of Twitter’s overall revenue. But that change won’t happen overnight, if at all. Musk said he plans to launch an $8-a-month subscription plan that will provide users with a verification mark as well as several other benefits, but the plans have faced strong backlash.
Meanwhile, Musk is working to prevent a potential exodus of advertisers. Musk’s team spent Monday “meeting with the marketing and advertising community” in New York, according to Jason Calacanis, a member of Musk’s inner circle.
Musk also met earlier this week with a group of leaders from civil society organizations, including the ADL, Free Press and the NAACP, to address concerns about a rise in hate on the platform. Representatives who attended the meeting told CNN they were encouraged by Musk’s willingness to talk and his initial commitments not to change the company’s content policies before the midterms, but asked him to take more measures to protect the platform.
Since meeting with Musk, representatives of some of the same organizations said, Twitter’s new owner has shown “erratic” behavior that has “betrayed” the commitments he made privately to the groups.
Shortly before last week’s $44 billion takeover of Twitter was reported to be complete, Musk wrote an open letter trying to reassure advertisers that he doesn’t want the social network to become a “free-for-all hellscape all”.
“Fundamentally, Twitter aspires to be the world’s most respected advertising platform that strengthens your brand and grows your business,” he wrote. “Let’s build something extraordinary together.”
– CNN’s Brian Fung, Peter Valdes-Dapena and Jon Passantino contributed to this report.