Elon Musk is losing revenue on Twitter and complaining bitterly about it as he seeks out others to blame for his misfortune. He paid nearly double the value of the company, a deal he tried to sink. But the contract held firm. As social activists hold his feet to the fire over standards, the billionaire’s sights landed upon “activists.
On Friday, Musk fessed up about the financial drain that advertisers have been on Twitter. Rather than look at the problem logically, the richest man on earth blamed “activist groups:”
‘[Activist groups] have been] trying to destroy free speech. Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.’
Musk’s grief over his financial losses has been on full. display after he paid nearly double what it is currently worth. Bad move:
‘Elon Musk admitted on Friday that Twitter is taking a major financial hit from lost advertisers — and accused “activist group’ se of “trying to destroy free speech.” “Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.’
The billionaire knows a great deal about sending rockets into space and building electric cars. However, his business acumen appears to be falling far short of the genius category when it comes to Twitter:
‘Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activist. Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.’
Musk did not say which activist groups he blamed for the sudden near-catastrophic drop in prices. Activist groups have been highly critical of Musk’s “free speech” effort.
Over 40 civil rights and activist groups asked Twitter’s 20 advertisers managed to withhold their advertising money unless:
‘Musk agreed to uphold content moderation standards and crack down on hate speech. The open letter’s signatories included Media Matters, GLAAD and the NAACP, among dozens of others.’
Top advertising firms designed a backup option to handle their budgets:
“Major advertising companies backup plans to move their budgets to other platforms due to concerns about Musk’s ownership of Twitter. Interpublic Group, a ‘Big Four” advertising firm, recommended that its clients pause spending on Twitter due to the uncertain outlook.’
Many worry about Musk’s content concerns after he laid off a substantial number of employees, according to CNN Business.
Meanwhile, NBA superstar LeBron James and others left Twitter following an explosion of hate speech from the media site.
Musk tried to reassure Twitter’s advertisers via an open letter to “Twitter’s ad partners” last week. In it, he vowed to keep the media site’s current openness, which could easily flip to a “hellscape” with the wrong moves, especially at this crucial startup time.
In addition, Musk vowed to “diversify Twitter’s revenue stream.” Twitter Blue will be an eight-dollar subscription per month even as the King of Spook, Stephen King went after Twitter’s move to charge for its “blue check”
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
Christie writes Gloria Christie Reports & Three White Lions Substack newsletters and a Three White Lions podcast available on Apple, Spotify, etc. She is a political journalist for the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery (in progress). Find her here on Facebook. Or at Three White Lions her book on Amazon Kindle Vella and the Gloria Christie Three White Lions podcast on Apple, Spotify, etc