Musk will speak to a vetted group of advertisers on Twitter Spaces, a live voice chat feature on the platform. WPP, one of the world’s largest advertising agencies, is among the participants, according to a person familiar with the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Discussion topics are unclear, but Musk said last week that Twitter was facing “Huge drop in revenueAs advertisers paused campaigns on the platform. Since Musk completed the acquisition, reports of hate speech and abuse on Twitter have ballooned.
Musk has been scrambling to support the company’s revenue streams, cut costs by laying off employees and find new ways to make money as he grapples with the reality of having to pay about $1 billion a year in interest on debt when buying Twitter. The vast majority of Twitter’s revenue comes from advertising. The potential recession and high inflation have already slashed advertising budgets significantly, making now a particularly difficult time for the entire digital advertising industry.
At the same time, advertisers are hypersensitive to the type of content their ads may appear alongside. Musk has repeatedly said he wants to maintain standards for content moderation, but by excluding half of the company’s active employees, groups and advertisers, the company has been able to maintain its standards for keeping hate speech and violent and sexual content off people’s feeds.
NAACP President Derek Johnson called on companies to drop their ads on Twitter “until action is taken to make Twitter a safe space.” Musk, the self-proclaimed “free speech absolute,” accused the companies participating in the boycott of “trying to destroy free speech in America.”
Automakers Ford, General Motors and Volkswagen have pulled all of their ads on Twitter, along with cereal and snack companies General Mills and Mondelez, the company behind Oreo cookies, Ritz crackers and Sour Patch Kids candy. The international advertising and consulting firm Interpublic Group, which represents American Express, Coca-Cola, Fitbit, Spotify and dozens of other big companies, has also advised its customers to put their Twitter ad purchases on hold for the time being.
“The thermonuclear name and shame is exactly what will happen if this continues,” Musk tweeted on Friday As more companies begin ad exits, he threatens to unleash his rowdy online fans on companies and CEOs who are abandoning the platform.
In his short tenure, Musk has laid off nearly half of Twitter’s workforce, decimating its content moderation and engineering teams days before Tuesday’s midterm elections. While the company’s remaining employees struggled to keep up with complex infrastructure challenges, the company moved to hire some of these displaced employees.
He said that Musk plans to sell Twitter’s blue verification badge for $8 a month, but without actually verifying users’ identities. It might actually cost the company more money than it brings in. It also threatens to wreak havoc on a platform already struggling with the spread of misinformation, bots, and scammers.
Since taking office, Musk has ridiculed politicians – Including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.) – On the platform, share a meme featuring a file nazi soldierpromoted false information about the attack on the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Strict restrictions on parody accounts.
These and other moves by Musk scared advertisers.
Advertisers are not manipulated by activist groups, but rather forced by established principles about the types of companies they can do business with. These principles include an assessment of the platforms’ commitment to brand integrity and relevance,” Lou Pascalis, president of major marketing firm, MMA Global, said. Tweet at Musk.
Musk banned Pascalis – then lifted the ban – after the exchange.
“Twitteraholic. Total bacon fan. Explorer. Typical social media practitioner. Beer maven. Web aficionado.”