Elon Musk Reports ‘Massive Drop in Revenue’ as Companies Pause Twitter Ads

With activist groups pressuring advertisers to leave Twitter after its acquisition by Elon Musk, the social media platform has seen “a massive drop in revenue,” Musk said Friday (Nov. 4) in a tweet.

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 tweet came as activists protest potential changes in how Twitter will moderate content after the purchase and as a growing number of advertisers have moved away from the platform.

This has happened even though Twitter’s content moderation remains unchanged, and the company has tried to “appease” activists, Musk said in the tweet.

“Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America,” Musk said.

General Mills, Mondelez International and Pfizer are among the advertisers that have paused their advertising on Twitter in the time since Musk took the reins at the company, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

Musk completed his takeover of Twitter on Oct. 27.

Since then, it has been a tumultuous week for the platform.

This has included Musk firing Twitter’s senior staff, considering a fourfold increase in the subscription price for its Twitter Blue plan, and dissolving the Twitter board and making Musk the sole director of the company.

In addition, Twitter temporarily closed its offices Friday as it emailed staff to tell them if they had been laid off, Reuters reported.

Musk addressed activists’ concerns about the future of content moderation on the platform soon after the completion of the acquisition.

As PYMNTS reported at the time, Musk has called himself a “free speech absolutist,” but seemed to start backtracking last week.

In an Oct. 28 tweet, he wrote that it is important to have a place for debate that includes a wide range of beliefs while also not becoming a “free-for-all hellscape.”

“In addition to adhering to the laws of the land, our platform must be warm and welcoming to all,” Musk wrote.