Elon Musk tries to distract from Twitter layoffs by claiming advertisers are fleeing the platform

We’re one week into Elon Musk’s stewardship of Twitter, and according to Musk, it has already spurred a “massive drop in revenue.” Or not, and that’s simply what Musk is saying to distract everybody from the completely heartless layoffs of 1000’s of those that have already spurred one federal lawsuit. But you realize, right here’s the tweet:

It’s not unreasonable to imagine Twitter has had a drop in income: many big corporations — GM, General Mills, and Audi are just some names on the record — have paused on promoting campaigns throughout Musk’s tumultuous takeover and ongoing mass firing occasion. In his model of occasions, the failure of advertisers to supply income to what’s left of his firm is an try and “destroy free speech in America.”

The accountability of advertisers to assist free speech as a precept is unclear, however their normal strategy to spending has a bias towards stability and model security. The day after Elon took over Twitter and started by firing its CEO, CFO, coverage chief, and lead counsel, the chief accountable for main its promoting enterprise and model partnerships, Sarah Personette, resigned.

Musk has mentioned he desires Twitter to show away from promoting as a main income supply, however his $8 Twitter Blue bundle with preferential tweet placement, blue test verification standing, and fewer adverts hasn’t launched but.

While he waits to draw thousands and thousands of customers to pay for Twitter options that was once free, the enterprise he simply purchased attributed 89 p.c of final 12 months’s $5 billion in income to promoting. That’s probably why Elon started his tenure with a pitch to advertisers, telling them Twitter gained’t grow to be a “free-for-all hellscape.”

Now he’s blaming their exit on “activist groups pressuring advertisers” with out offering proof of that whereas equally making an unverified declare that “we did everything we could to appease the activists.” Everything that could possibly be achieved is apparently a 45-minute Zoom call with representatives from seven nonprofits who needed to debate how Elon would deal with hate speech on Twitter.