Billionaire and Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk has threatened advertisers that they will be named and shamed in a massive way if their boycott of Twitter advertising continues.
Replying to a user, Musk Saturday wrote, “A thermonuclear name & shame (of advertisers) is exactly what will happen if this continues.”
Earlier on Thursday, advertising giant Interpublic Group advised clients that work with its ad buying group, Mediabrands, to “pause” spending on Twitter for the next week until it gets more clarity on Twitter’s trust and safety policies, along with organisational structure and capabilities under Elon Musk.
Thank you.
A thermonuclear name & shame is exactly what will happen if this continues.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022
Hours before, Musk justified the mass layoffs stating that he was left with no other choice when the company is losing over $4mn every day.
He announced that everyone who exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required.
Regarding Twitter's reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day.
Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022
He blamed activists for a significant drop in the company's revenues.
"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 activists. Extremely messed up! They're trying to destroy free speech in America," Musk tweeted.
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 activists.
Extremely messed up! They're trying to destroy free speech in America.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022
The company had posted a net loss of USD 270 million in the second quarter ended June 30, 2022 compared to a profit of USD 66 million in the same period a year ago.
The revenue of Twitter had declined to USD 1,176 million during the June 2022 quarter from USD 1,190 million a year ago. Advertisement revenue had increased by 2 per cent to USD 1.08 billion while subscription and other revenue declined by 27 per cent to USD 101 million on a year-over-year basis.