While Elon Musk is searching for new ways to generate revenue from Twitter, the new president is facing a new issue: advertisers are fleeing the platform. Musk stated on Friday that "Twitter has seen a massive drop in revenue" due to advertisers' concerns regarding content moderation and other issues raised by activists. Several major companies have temporarily halted their ads in recent days, including General Motors, Audi, Pfizer, General Mills, Volkswagen, and other big names, which are worried about potential changes to Twitter's policies and the departure of senior executives. Industry groups have also expressed concerns about brand safety under Musk's ownership, and The New York Times reported this week that "IPG," one of the largest advertising companies in the world, has advised clients to temporarily stop their spending on Twitter.
In this context, the NAACP joined other civil rights groups in calling for a boycott of advertisers on the platform. Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, stated, "It is unethical, dangerous, and extremely destructive to our democracy for any advertiser to fund a platform that fuels hate speech, election denial, and conspiracy theories." The withdrawal of advertisers, amid calls for a boycott, illustrates how quickly the advertising business on Twitter has deteriorated under Musk's leadership, and it comes about a week after Musk attempted to reassure the industry that he does not want to transform the platform into a "free-for-all hell."
Twitter saw a notable rise in hate speech and racial slurs immediately following news of Musk's takeover of the company. Later, Twitter's head of safety blamed this activity on coordinated campaigns. However, this increase raised concerns among civil rights groups, prompting Musk to meet with civil rights leaders this week. Musk appeared to blame the drop in advertising revenue on several activists, writing on Twitter: "Twitter has seen a huge drop in revenue due to pressure from activist groups on advertisers, even though nothing has changed on the site with content moderation, and we've done everything we can to please the activists." Activists, for their part, said that Musk's mass layoffs at Twitter, including those who worked on moderation and safety, undermine the commitments he made after their meeting.
