According to a survey of 500 American adults fielded by Pollfish on Tuesday, more than half—49%—agree with the decisions made by big brands to halt their Twitter ad spending. A quarter said they do not agree with these companies’ choice and another 24% aren’t sure if the move is wise or unwise for those organizations.
Following meetings with advertisers, a live public Twitter Q&A to address their concerns, and a reported meeting and deal with “activist” groups putting pressure on big brands to pause their ad buys on the platform, Musk has sent a series of mixed signals about how he actually plans to address their concerns.
After initially stating that he had addressed concerns by agreeing to form a “moderation council” that would help guide what content is permissible on the platform, Musk reportedly reneged, leaving the issue of content moderation — as well as brand safety concerns — in limbo.
Musk said he would personally review all ads for the platform to make sure they were “appropriate.” Then he backtracked, saying that instead of doing this himself, he would leave it up to Twitter’s advertising team. But then he tweeted again later in the day, saying that Twitter’s ad review team was too slow and inefficient and that they were not doing a good job. He then fired most of them.
When Musk announced his plans to buy Twitter in April, actor and activist Jameela Jamil tweeted that she would leave Twitter if the deal went through: “I fear this free speech bid is going to help this hell platform reach its final form of totally lawless hate, bigotry, and misogyny. Best of luck.” Jamil has not tweeted since Musk acquired the company.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson called on all companies to pull their ads from Twitter, arguing that it is “destructive to our democracy” for any business owner whose ad appears next an incendiary tweet or conspiracy theory not only funds the platform but also spreads the message.
In November, Volkswagen told its brands to stop advertising on Twitter until further notice. In a recent development, a spokesperson for the German auto giant said that all of its brands had followed the advice given to them by social media managers. Audi had opted to halt organic activities—such as direct posts on Facebook or Twitter responses from customers—and would only use their official pages in order respond with questions brought up be potential clients.
For their part, some other counterparts of Elon Musk have left the platform. These include Mary Barra—CEO of General Motors and RJ Scaringe—CEO at Rivian; they haven’t tweeted since the takeover by billionaire. Henrik Fisker also announced his immediate departure to Instagram.
Jaguar Land Rover has announced that it will hire many of the employees who lost their jobs on Twitter’s earnings release day, and will do so by selecting among those laid off.
In a series of tweets criticizing Musk, long-time marketing exec Lou Paskalis noted the move also contradicted what Musk promised some of Twitter’s biggest advertisers during his meeting with the Twitter Influence Council on Nov. 4. It seems that the industry is noticing and taking action in light of Musk’s obvious deceptiveness.
However, it gets much worse for Twitter. The controversies surrounding Twitter have been many, but this latest news is generating much discussion.
A new report shows that more than 5 million users on the digital platform have had their data compromised. Their information is now being sold and traded publicly or privately through API vulnerabilities—and it contains some sensitive personal details such as phone numbers, emails and even birth dates.
One security researcher discovered a flaw in Google’s systems and raised the alarm about how it could be abused by threat actors. His research included public information that had been scraped from public info—including phone numbers, email addresses, etc.—that wasn’t meant to be made available.
Here is a running list of brands that have told ADOTAT that they have quit twitter completely.
It should be noted that several agencies including OMD/OMG have expressed that they have no intention of working with Twitter as long as Musk is in charge, as most of their brands have a serious issue with the way he is running things.
Abbott Laboratories
Allstate Corporation
AMC Networks
American Express Company
AT&T
Big Heart Petcare
BlackRock, Inc.
BlueTriton Brands, Inc.
Boston Beer Company
CA Lottery (California State Lottery)
CenturyLink (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
Chanel
Chevrolet
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc.
Citigroup, Inc.
CNN
Dell
Diageo
DirecTV
Discover Financial Services
Fidelity
First National Realty Partners
Ford
Heineken N.V.
Hewlett-Packard (HP)
Hilton Worldwide
Inspire Brands, Inc.
Jeep
Kellogg Company
Kohl’s Department Stores, Inc.
Kyndryl
LinkedIn Corporation
MailChimp (The Rocket Science Group)
Marriott International, Inc.
Mars Petcare
Mars, Incorporated
Merck & Co. (Merck Sharp & Dohme MSD)
Meta Platforms, Inc. (formerly Facebook, Inc.)
MoneyWise (Wise Publishing, Inc.)
Nestle
Novartis AG
Pernod Ricard
PlayPass
The Coca-Cola Company
The Kraft Heinz Company
Tire Rack
Verizon
Wells Fargo
Whole Foods Market IP
Yum! Brands
