Tag: Twitter

General Mills and Audi are the latest big advertisers to pause ads on Twitter as questions swirl about how the social media platform will operate under new owner Elon Musk.

Spokesperson Kelsey Roemhildt on Thursday confirmed the move by the Minneapolis-based maker of food brands such as Cheerios and Annie’s macaroni and cheese. “As always, we will continue to monitor this new direction and evaluate our marketing spend,” she said.

Audi spokesperson Whaewon Choi-Wiles said the German automaker is pausing ads and “will continue to evaluate the situation.”

Advertisers are concerned about whether content moderation will remain as stringent under Musk — a self-described “free speech absolutist” — as it has been, and whether staying on Twitter might tarnish their brands.

Shortly before taking over the San Francisco company last week, Musk issued a vow to advertisers that he would not allow Twitter to become a “free-for-all hellscape,” an indication there would still be consequences for violators of its rules against harassment, violence, or election and COVID-related misinformation.

But since then some users have posted racial slurs and recirculated long-debunked conspiracy theories in an apparent attempt to see if the site’s policies were still being enforced. 

Spike in hate speech

Researchers from Montclair State University found that the 12 hours immediately following Musk’s takeover of Twitter saw a much more “hostile” environment on platform. The team looked at tweets filled with “vulgar and hostile” rhetoric aimed at people based on their race, religion, ethnicity and orientation, such as the “n-word,” “k-word,” and “f-word,” to find out just how bad it got. They found an “immediate, visible, and measurable spike” in those terms.

Researchers also said there was an increase in negative sentiment, with more than 67% of the tweets sent after Musk’s takeover having a negative tone.

The NAACP said this week it has expressed to Musk its concerns about “the dangerous, life-threatening hate and conspiracies that have proliferated on Twitter” under his watch.

Last week, General Motors announced that it had temporarily paused its Twitter advertising while it works to “understand the direction of the platform.” GM described the pause as a normal step it takes when a media platform undergoes significant change.

IPG Mediabrands sent a recommendation to clients on Monday that they pause advertising on Twitter for a week until more clarity emerges about brand safety on the site, according a person who had seen the recommendation.

Other big Twitter advertisers like Warner Discovery, Coca-Cola and Nestle did not respond to requests for comment about their advertising plans.

Some could evaluate their plans after Twitter’s new “content moderation council” meets. Musk has said he will not reinstate any accounts or make major content decisions before it is convened. No date has been announced for that meeting.

About 90% of Twitter’s revenue comes from advertisers but it’s far from the biggest platform that advertisers turn to for digital marketing. Google, Amazon and Meta account for about 75% of digital ads, with all other platforms combined making up the other 25%.

Twitter will account for 0.9% of worldwide digital ad spending in 2022, according to projections by Insider Intelligence. Meta will account for 21.4% in 2022.

Twitter has lost most of its top executives in the past week, including the one in charge of advertising sales. Sarah Personette, the site’s chief customer officer, tweeted earlier this week that she resigned on Friday from Twitter and her work access was officially cut off Monday night. Days earlier, she said she had a “great discussion” with Musk and expressed optimism about the company’s future. 

In announcing her resignation Tuesday, she said she still believes Twitter’s new administration understands the importance of upholding the “brand safety” standards she sought to champion.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk now says he wants to charge users $8 per month to retain their verification badge or obtain one on the platform — after an earlier report suggested he might seek even more for the privilege.

On Tuesday, Musk outlined his plan on Twitter and called the current system that gives out the blue checkmark badges “bulls**t.” The blue check feature, indicating that the person’s identity has been verified, would become part of Twitter Blue, which costs $5 a month. 

“Power to the people! Blue for $8/month,” he wrote.

The blue checkmark has become a coveted marker of status among some of the celebrities, politicians and journalists who are heavy users of Twitter. On Sunday, Musk said the whole verification process is getting “revamped.” 

For the $8 monthly charge, users will also get priority in replies, mentions and search, ability to post longer videos and audio, and half as many ads, Musk said. He said that there would be a “paywall bypass” for publishers who are “willing to work with us.”

The new strategy, he said, will give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators. 

He added that there will be a secondary tag below a public figure’s name, much like there is now for politicians.

Opponents of the approach say it will make it easier for users to spread disinformation or to impersonate someone else on Twitter. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mocked the idea of Musk charging user fees.

“Lmao at a billionaire earnestly trying to sell people on the idea that ‘free speech’ is actually a $8/mo subscription plan,” she tweeted. 

Still, Musk is undeterred. 

“To all complainers, please continue complaining, but it will cost $8,” he wrote. 

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO went on to share a clip of the British comedy show Monty Python, which he says inspired him. “Totally stole idea of charging for insults & arguments from Monty Python tbh,” he wrote.

The plan comes after The Verge reported Musk was looking to charge $20 a month for blue check users — prompting fierce pushback, including from legendary horror writer Stephen King, who said “Twitter should pay” him to stay on the app.  

“If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron,” King tweeted, referring to the energy company that filed for bankruptcy in 2001. 

Users and tech industry analysts have voiced an array of concerns about what Twitter may look like under Musk, who declared his intent to manage the platform as a “free speech” space.

Since Musk took charge of Twitter last week, the platform has seen a significant spike in hate speech, according to a new study. Researchers from Montclair State University found that the 12 hours immediately following Musk’s ascension to ownership saw a much more “hostile” environment on Twitter. 

Christopher Brito

Christopher Brito is a social media producer and trending writer for CBS News, focusing on sports and stories that involve issues of race and culture.

After months of contention between Elon Musk and Twitter executives over his bid to own the company, the Tesla founder was officially given control on Friday. But as the new leader emerged at the helm, the platform saw a massive spike in hate speech, a new study found. 

Researchers from Montclair State University found that the 12 hours immediately following Musk’s ascension to ownership saw a much more “hostile” environment on Twitter. The team looked at tweets filled with “vulgar and hostile” rhetoric aimed at people based on their race, religion, ethnicity and orientation, such as the “n-word,” “k-word,” and “f-word,” to find out just how bad it got. 

And what they found was an “immediate, visible, and measurable spike.” 

In the week leading up to Musk’s acquisition, researchers said there were no more than 84 hostile tweets an hour on the platform. But from midnight on October 28 – the day Musk took ownership – to noon the next day, there were 4,778 hate-filled tweets. That accounts for more than 398 tweets an hour, about 4.7 times higher than the seven-day average leading up to that day. The potential reach for those tweets was more than 3 million, researchers found. 

Researchers also said there was an increase in negative sentiment, with more than 67% of the tweets sent after Musk’s takeover having a negative tone.

“In sum, the content and tone of Twitter posts became measurably more oriented towards hate speech on the day Elon Musk became CEO of the company with significant reach attained for this hate content,” the study says. 

Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of safety and security, has also confirmed an increase in hate speech. On Monday, he tweeted that the company has seen a “surge in hateful conduct” and removed more than 1,500 accounts. A graph he shared of total impression of tweets with at least one slur shows that the increase kicked off on Friday very shortly after the Musk acquisition was announced. It appeared to spike between Saturday and Sunday. 

Roth described the surge as a “short-term trolling campaign” with many of the accounts they removed stemming from repeated “bad actors.” On Saturday, he said as an example that more than 50,000 tweets that used a particular slur were issued by just 300 accounts, most of which were “inauthentic.” 

“These issues aren’t new, and the people targeted by hateful conduct aren’t numbers or data points. We’re going to continue investing in policy and technology to make things better,” he tweeted.

While Montclair researchers made it clear that the acquisition saw an immediate increase in hostile language on the platform, what remains murky is what specifically caused it. Musk has long said that this ownership of Twitter would come with fewer restrictions, but researchers said it’s “speculative” to know whether his potential policy changes would have caused the spike. 

It’s possible, however, that based on his past sentiments users resorted to the language because they assumed they would no longer be banned or suspended from the platform. It’s also possible that having an “unmoderated platform was potentially a source of excitement,” researchers said. 

Musk has not explicitly said what will be tolerated on the platform since the surge began, although he has retweeted Roth’s statements about the surge. On Friday, Musk said that Twitter will form a “content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints” and that no major content decisions would be made before that council can convene. 

“Twitter will not allow anyone who was de-platformed for violating Twitter rules back on platform until we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks,” Musk said Tuesday night. “Twitter’s content moderation council will include representatives with widely divergent views, which will certainly include the civil rights community and groups who face hate-fueled violence.”

Li Cohen

Li Cohen is a social media producer and trending reporter for CBS News, focusing on social justice issues.