Advertisers’ withdrawal in the face of demands for an ad boycott demonstrates how swiftly Twitter’s ad revenue has deteriorated under Musk. It also comes only a week after Musk sought to reassure the industry that he did not want the platform to become a “free-for-all hellscape.” Following the announcement of Musk’s takeover of the firm, there was a substantial increase in hate speech and racist insults on Twitter. Later, Twitter’s safety chief blamed the behaviour on an organized trolling operation. However, the activities heightened human rights organizations’ worries, forcing Musk to meet with civil rights officials this week.
On Friday, he seemed to blame the decline in ad income on the same activists. “Twitter has seen a large reduction in income as a result of activist organisations lobbying advertisers, despite the fact that nothing has changed with content moderation and we done all we could to placate the activists,” he tweeted.
However, a coalition of human rights organisations and campaigners disagreed with Musk’s assessment. During a conference call with reporters on Friday, they argued Musk’s wholesale layoffs of Twitter employees, particularly those in moderation and safety, violate the assurances he made during their meeting.
