The Washington Post is reporting that Twitter and by extension Elon Musk is making millions of dollars thanks to extremist influences. Here’s how:
Elon Musk’s restoration of 10 Twitter accounts that were banned under the platform’s previous management has generated enough engagement since they returned to the platform to likely generate $19 million in advertising revenue annually, a nonprofit dedicated to countering hate speech online has concluded.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) said the 10 accounts were among hundreds thought to have been restored under a “general amnesty” that Musk announced in late November.
The report comes as Musk is working to generate revenue for the company, which he has said is in dire financial straits despite the layoffs of thousands of employees and the suspension of payments for a number of services including rent on Twitter’s downtown San Francisco headquarters. Twitter’s advertising revenue in December was 70 percent lower than the previous year, according to data from Standard Media Index, an advertising research firm.
CCDH’s chief executive, Imran Ahmed, linked the drop off in ad revenue to the decision by Musk to restore formerly banned accounts. “Our research shows that there is a depressingly banal answer to why Elon Musk would reinstate the accounts of self-professed Nazis, disinformation actors, misogynists and homophobes — it’s highly profitable,” he said.
Musk did not immediately respond to request for comment. Twitter’s communications department was eliminated in layoffs last year.
The CCDH uncovered multiple examples of advertisements from major national brands, including Amazon, Apple TV, the NFL and Fiverr, that appeared next to content from the 10 extremist influencers. In one instance, an ad for Wendy’s appeared next to a tweet by Stew Peters, an anti-vaccine influencer with 168,000 followers, where he referred to the vaccine as a “BioWeapon” and claimed people have been “murdered” by it.
In another example, an ad for the streaming service Peacock appeared next to a tweet from Anthime Gionet, an influencer known as Baked Alaska, who was recently sentenced for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. The ad appeared next to a tweet where Gionet asked his followers whether he should “say the n-word.”
Brand advertisements also appeared next to tweets about election fraud, vaccine conspiracy theories, false statements about Ukraine and bio weapons, and tweets denigrating women in business, CCDH said.
This pretty much confirms what many have suspected. Which is that Elon is so desperate for cash that he will do anything including being an ally to hate in all its forms under the guise of “free speech”. The only saving grace is that $19 million in annual revenue is a drop in the bucket in terms of what Twitter likely needs to survive. But even that tiny amount of revenue may make Elon go further and do more on this front.
The best way to stop this is for major advertisers to abandon Twitter as an advertising medium. After all, if you’re a Proctor And Gamble or a Samsung or Apple, why would you want your advertising to appear amongst hateful content? Common sense says that you don’t want that to happen. Thus the only way to defend against that is to not have your advertisements on the platform. So let’s see if this report encourages those companies and companies like them to abandon Twitter en masse.
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This entry was posted on February 9, 2023 at 11:09 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Twitter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Elon Musk Is Making Millions From Extremist Influencers
The Washington Post is reporting that Twitter and by extension Elon Musk is making millions of dollars thanks to extremist influences. Here’s how:
Elon Musk’s restoration of 10 Twitter accounts that were banned under the platform’s previous management has generated enough engagement since they returned to the platform to likely generate $19 million in advertising revenue annually, a nonprofit dedicated to countering hate speech online has concluded.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) said the 10 accounts were among hundreds thought to have been restored under a “general amnesty” that Musk announced in late November.
The report comes as Musk is working to generate revenue for the company, which he has said is in dire financial straits despite the layoffs of thousands of employees and the suspension of payments for a number of services including rent on Twitter’s downtown San Francisco headquarters. Twitter’s advertising revenue in December was 70 percent lower than the previous year, according to data from Standard Media Index, an advertising research firm.
CCDH’s chief executive, Imran Ahmed, linked the drop off in ad revenue to the decision by Musk to restore formerly banned accounts. “Our research shows that there is a depressingly banal answer to why Elon Musk would reinstate the accounts of self-professed Nazis, disinformation actors, misogynists and homophobes — it’s highly profitable,” he said.
Musk did not immediately respond to request for comment. Twitter’s communications department was eliminated in layoffs last year.
The CCDH uncovered multiple examples of advertisements from major national brands, including Amazon, Apple TV, the NFL and Fiverr, that appeared next to content from the 10 extremist influencers. In one instance, an ad for Wendy’s appeared next to a tweet by Stew Peters, an anti-vaccine influencer with 168,000 followers, where he referred to the vaccine as a “BioWeapon” and claimed people have been “murdered” by it.
In another example, an ad for the streaming service Peacock appeared next to a tweet from Anthime Gionet, an influencer known as Baked Alaska, who was recently sentenced for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. The ad appeared next to a tweet where Gionet asked his followers whether he should “say the n-word.”
Brand advertisements also appeared next to tweets about election fraud, vaccine conspiracy theories, false statements about Ukraine and bio weapons, and tweets denigrating women in business, CCDH said.
This pretty much confirms what many have suspected. Which is that Elon is so desperate for cash that he will do anything including being an ally to hate in all its forms under the guise of “free speech”. The only saving grace is that $19 million in annual revenue is a drop in the bucket in terms of what Twitter likely needs to survive. But even that tiny amount of revenue may make Elon go further and do more on this front.
The best way to stop this is for major advertisers to abandon Twitter as an advertising medium. After all, if you’re a Proctor And Gamble or a Samsung or Apple, why would you want your advertising to appear amongst hateful content? Common sense says that you don’t want that to happen. Thus the only way to defend against that is to not have your advertisements on the platform. So let’s see if this report encourages those companies and companies like them to abandon Twitter en masse.
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This entry was posted on February 9, 2023 at 11:09 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Twitter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.