On the same day that Twitter is undergoing massive layoffs, Chief Twit Elon Musk is throwing fuel on the fire by claiming that advertisers are leaving the social media platform.
In a tweet, Musk said that the company has experienced a “massive” decrease in revenue, but did not specify over what period of time that occurred. In addition, the new owner/CEO/Helpdesk Hotline claimed that the reason for the revenue decline was “due to activist groups pressuring advertisers.”
He went even further, claiming that these unnamed activist groups were “trying to destroy free speech in America” by pressuring advertisers to leave the platform.
Musk did not provide any insight into which advertisers had left or which activist groups had reportedly pressured those companies into leaving the platform, so it’s currently unclear if anything he said is accurate. However, it surely did one thing, and that was to rile up users on the platform. The tweet, which occurred on Friday morning, already has almost half a million likes.
While it’s unclear which advertisers Musk was pointing at with the accusation, there are some companies who have paused advertising on the platform. As noted by The Verge, General Motors, General Mills, and Audi have all temporarily halted advertising on Twitter after Musk’s acquisition of the company.
Just last week, Musk took to Twitter to try and reassure partners that Twitter would remain a good platform for advertisers. The new owner said that he would ensure Twitter did not become a “free-for-all hellscape.”
With today’s shift, it appears that Musk’s relationship with advertisers is off to a rocky start.
All of this is happening as the company undergoes a massive restructuring that includes massive layoffs impacting roughly half of Twitter’s employees. Next week, the company is also pushing to launch its new $8 per month version of Twitter Blue which would include verification.
