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Activists are asking Twitter advertisers to make statements about pulling their ads off the app after Musk lifted the ban on Trump.
A group of civil rights activists are asking Twitter’s advertisers to make statements about pulling their ads off the social media site after its owner, Elon Musk, lifted the ban on tweets from former US president Donald Trump.
After the US Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, Twitter shut down Trump’s account because it could lead to more violence. The account was brought back online over the weekend.
About 90% of Twitter’s income comes from selling digital advertisements.
The Stop Toxic Twitter coalition claimed that Musk had promised advertisers that Twitter would reconsider reinstating banned accounts and establish a new content monitoring panel.
As of Monday, no such council has been established.
“It was a real breach,” said Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters, a left-leaning media watchdog under the said coalition. He said Musk “was lying from the beginning”.
When asked for a comment, Twitter, which lost a lot of people from its communications team after Musk’s takeover, did not respond right away.
Musk complained earlier this month that pressure from activists had already led to a “massive drop in revenue.”
Late last week, Twitter started bringing back banned or suspended accounts, like Trump’s and Kathy Griffin’s.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a member of the US House of Representatives, also got her personal Twitter account back.
According to private meetings with the coalition, public remarks, and spending statistics provided by ad measurement company Pathmatics, 51 of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers by total spending have paused ads this year.
Carusone said the coalition is requesting the firms that have not publicised their Twitter pause to release public statements and help exert pressure on the remaining 49 advertisers who have taken no action.
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“You need to take a stand and draw the line. It’s important for big spenders to say they have stopped,” Carusone said.
He said the coalition may consider naming the corporations later this week if they have not released a public statement regarding the suspension of advertising.
Musk tweeted on Saturday that Twitter would reinstate the former president’s account after getting an affirmative vote from a narrow majority of respondents to his poll.
Twitter’s list of top advertisers has changed since the week before Musk’s acquisition of the firm was finalized.
Pathmatics data reveals that during the week preceding the acquisition, Twitter’s top two advertisers were major brands HBO and Mondelez.
However, after Musk fired off half of Twitter’s workers, the top two advertisers were FinanceBuzz.io, a personal financial website, and Trendytowns, a Singapore-based shopping website.
Pathmatics data shows that the top 100 advertisers spent an estimated $US23.6 million ($A35.7 million) on Twitter from November 10 to 16, a decrease from the $US24 million ($A36 million) spent from October 16 to 22 when Musk became the social media company’s owner.
Jaw de Guzman is the content producer for Comms Room, a knowledge platform and website aimed at assisting the communications industry and its professionals.
