According to a recent revelation, Twitter is generating millions of dollars off just a few of its most prominent users. According to new study from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), Twitter “will collect up to $19 million in advertising income” from only 10 accounts that were previously banned from the network.
The investigation examined the current involvement with ten accounts that had previously been banned for “posting nasty content and harmful conspiracies.” Following Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, the accounts were restored. The group includes accounts affiliated with extremism and conspiracy theories, such as those of influencer Andrew Tate, Daily Stormer founder Andrew Anglin, notable antivaxxer Robert Malone, and the Gateway Pundit.
CCDH reviewed almost 10,000 tweets from these accounts during a 47-day period in December and January to determine their reach and engagement. According to their findings, “tweets from the ten accounts garnered a total of 54 million impressions on an average day,” they wrote. “If this average is projected throughout 365 days, the accounts may be anticipated to reach approximately 20 billion impressions in a year.”
CCDH claims that in order to evaluate how much ad income those impressions may produce for Twitter, it set up three new Twitter accounts that solely followed the 10 people identified in the study. The research discovered that adverts occurred around once every 6.7 tweets. CCDH then calculated “a total number of up to $19 million in expected yearly ad income across the accounts” using data from analytics company Brandwatch, which estimates that “Twitter advertising cost an average of $6.46 per 1,000 impressions.”
While these estimations aren’t exact, they show how important a tiny number of extremely divisive accounts may be to Twitter. It also highlights how much more Twitter stands to earn by reintroducing even more problematic accounts.
All of the accounts mentioned in the study were previously banned from Twitter, but were returned when Musk indicated that he would grant “universal amnesty” to individuals who had not breached the law. In addition, Twitter has revealed intentions to allow even more previously banned users to appeal their suspensions.
At the same time, since Musk’s takeover, Twitter’s advertising revenue has suffered a significant damage. According to Platformer, a number of high-profile advertisers have withdrawn from the platform, and income is down by up to 40%.
The study also cites other occasions in which adverts from well-known businesses appeared alongside rude and inflammatory tweets from these individuals. A Amazon Video ad, for example, appears just beneath a tweet from Andrew Anglin stating that “the only vocation a woman is genuinely capable of on merit is prostitution.” The investigation also highlighted an NFL advertisement that ran just beneath a tweet containing false information regarding COVID-19 immunisations.
“Our investigation reveals that Twitter has been displaying adverts adjacent to all of the toxic accounts we have reviewed, despite the fact that the persons behind them are known to espouse hateful ideas and lies,” says CCDH.