Snippet: Musk Blames ‘Activist Groups’ for Major Advertisers Pausing Spending on Twitter ☇

Kyle Wiggers for TechCrunch:

As mass layoffs begin at Twitter, major advertisers are pausing their campaigns on the social network — a move that’s gotten the attention of newly minted CEO Elon Musk. In a tweet this morning, Musk blamed a “massive drop” in Twitter revenue on “activist groups pressuring advertisers,” likely referring to an open letter sent Tuesday by civil society organizations urging Twitter advertisers to suspend their ads if Musk didn’t commit to enforcing safety standards and community guidelines.

I really don’t want to focus too much on the drama that is going on with Twitter, but it was my favorite social network despite many flaws and frustrations over the years and it seems that things are already trending in a negative direction, only a week after Musk took over. I don’t think advertisers hitting pause has much to do with “free speech” or which way politics are leaning, but rather the simple notion that Musk is a polarizing character, making a lot of changes in a short amount of time, and there’s the big question mark if the whole site is going to devolve into a hate-mongering cesspool (well more than it is already.) GM and Audi bailing makes sense because New Twitter Guy is also Tesla Guy, so why advertise there?

Meanwhile, the Twitter app for iOS received an update this afternoon and it looks like the pay-for-verification thing is happening really soon. Call me pessimistic, but I don’t think this is going to get much interest among “regular” users.