SAN FRANCISCO – Several big-name Twitter advertisers are monitoring new owner Elon Musk’s changes to the service, watching and weighing whether to stay on the platform.
Microsoft, Verizon Communications and Charter Communications are among the companies taking a wait-and-see approach.
They have not yet made a decision about their Twitter advertising, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. The companies declined to comment.
Meanwhile, United Airlines suspended its advertising on Twitter earlier this week, a spokesman said on Friday, without commenting further.
A spokesman for Southwest Airlines said the carrier is not making any immediate changes to its Twitter advertising, but will continue to closely monitor the situation.
American Airlines Group and Delta Air Lines did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
HBO – one of Twitter’s largest advertisers, according to research firm Pathmatics – is also evaluating its spending. An HBO spokesman said the network “will be assessing the platform under its new leadership” and has yet to “determine appropriate next steps”.
Illumina, which makes DNA-sequencing machines, said it is constantly evaluating how and where it advertises and that includes “watching what happens with Twitter very closely”.
Omnicom Group, one of the world’s largest advertising firms, said it is “in close contact with Twitter” as it assesses the impact of new ownership and potential changes in its strategy.
Companies are under increasing pressure to make a decision on whether to keep spending on Twitter after Mr Musk took over the company last week and ushered in sweeping changes, including laying off about half of its workforce.
While Mr Musk has pledged not to let Twitter become a cesspool of toxic content, he himself posted and deleted a tweet linking to an unfounded conspiracy theory shortly after the deal closed.
United joins Pfizer, General Mills and Volkswagen among the brands that have already paused their advertising on the social media site.
Mr Musk tweeted on Friday that the company had experienced a “massive drop” in revenue as advertisers withdrew.
Advertising agencies, which direct large amounts of spending, are currently divided over whether to advise their clients to pause their spending on Twitter, according to a person familiar with the matter.
In a call this week, Mr Musk assured ad executives that he would not reduce brand safety measures and even planned to enhance them, the person said.
But some ad buyers are wondering how Mr Musk can fulfil his promises of brand safety while also loosening controls around content – a move that could potentially allow more hate speech to spread on the platform.
On Friday evening, Mr Musk tweeted apparent reassurances for skittish advertisers. “Twitter’s strong commitment to content moderation remains absolutely unchanged,” he wrote.
He also threatened to publicly call out companies that abandoned the service, vowing that “a thermonuclear name-and-shame is exactly what will happen if this continues”. BLOOMBERG
