SAN FRANCISCO (dpa-AFX) – New Twitter owner Elon Musk complained of a drop in sales after large companies suspended their advertising on the online service. Musk blamed “activist groups” for lobbying advertisers. Nothing has changed in addressing controversial content and everything has been done to satisfy these activists, Musk wrote on Twitter Friday. “They are trying to destroy free speech in America,” he said, without naming the groups.
On Friday, the VW group joined other large companies who are putting a stop to their Twitter advertising. General Motors stopped advertising on the platform last week. Pharmaceutical company Pfizer and food giants Mondelez and General Mills are said to have taken similar measures.
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Perhaps even more threatening for Twitter’s advertising activity, which accounts for around 90 percent of sales – even large international advertising groups keep their distance. Industry giant IPG, which manages billions of advertising budgets for companies like Coca-Cola, American Express, Levi Strauss and Spotify, is said to have advised clients to stop advertising on Twitter just days after the acquisition of Musk.
A permanent withdrawal of major advertisers would be a problem for Twitter and Musk. The service recently wrote red numbers. Musk had also contracted about $ 13 billion in loans for the acquisition and, according to media reports, serving them requires more money than Twitter’s business generates in free funds. The contraction in revenues would be particularly inconvenient.
Musk has raised concern himself with constant criticism that Twitter limits free speech too much. In an open letter to advertisers last week, he promised that not everyone would be allowed to post everything on Twitter without consequences. Then, over the weekend, he himself circulated a link to an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory about the attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi./so/DP/nas
