HARD BALL

Elon Musk Tries to Win Advertisers Back by Threatening Them

“A thermonuclear name & shame is exactly what will happen if this continues.”

Elon Musk is threatening to “name and shame” advertisers who have hit pause on Twitter while his takeover of the social media platform sows chaos.

The idea, apparently, is that Musk’s fans would boycott those companies until they agree to start funneling ad bucks to Twitter again.

General Mills, General Motors, Volkswagen, and Pfizer are among the major corporations that have stopped advertising on Twitter since Musk bought it a week ago for $44 billion.

The vast majority of Twitter’s revenue comes from advertising, and the new boss was not happy to see the bottom line drying up.

“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,” Musk tweeted Friday morning.

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

Ironically, after Twitter users flagged the tweet, a Guardian story about why advertisers were actually fleeing the site was added as “context.”

Hate speech on the platform ballooned after Musk’s purchase, and banned users immediately began clamoring for reinstatement, undoubtedly making advertisers nervous.

Musk’s complaint about their abandonment led conservative operative Mike Davis to tweet at the new owner: “Name and shame the advertisers who are succumbing to the advertiser boycotts. So we can counter-boycott them.”

The SpaceX and Tesla founder then replied: “Thank you. A thermonuclear name & shame is exactly what will happen if this continues.”

The billionaire’s vow seems unlikely to calm corporate jitters and bring advertisers back. It comes during a week of utter tumult, with Musk firing top executives and board members, launching massive layoffs, and announcing a plan to charge verified users $8 a month to keep their blue check marks.

“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,” he tweeted.

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Tracy Connor

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