New Twitter owner Elon Musk on Friday announced that the site has seen a "massive drop in revenue" after a growing number of companies stopped advertising on the platform following his $44 billion purchase.
Musk in a tweet blamed "activist groups" for the advertiser exodus.
"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," he wrote in a tweet. "Extremely messed up! They're trying to destroy free speech in America."
Shortly after it was posted, Twitter added a fact-check disclaimer to the tweet to add additional "context" to Musk's claim.
"Readers added context they thought people might want to know," the disclaimer said, adding multiple links to reports of advertisers "suspending or canceling ad buys over concerns with Twitter platform direction, especially as related to content moderation."
The disclaimer has since been removed from the tweet, though it was not immediately clear why.
I’m dying 🤣…Elon hit with a fact check by the app he just dropped $44B on pic.twitter.com/eBgalvTdVa
— Wu-Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) November 4, 2022
Several high-profile companies, such as General Mills and Volkswagen, confirmed to CNN that they would be putting a pause on their Twitter advertisements due to concerns with Musk's ownership of the social media platform.
"We have paused advertising on Twitter," said General Mills spokesperson Kelsey Roemhildt in a statement to CNN. "As always, we will continue to monitor this new direction and evaluate our marketing spend," the spokesperson said.
Volkswagen Group also confirmed in a separate statement that their brands — Audi, Porsche and Bentley — were advised to "pause their paid activities on the platform until further notice."
Toyota, a direct competitor with Musk's company Tesla, previously told CNN that they were "in discussions with key stakeholders and monitoring the situation," and Pfizer and Mondelez also announced that they would be halting ads on Twitter, according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal.
Interpublic Group, the parent company of giant consumer brands like Unilever and Coca-Cola, also recommended that clients pause advertising on the platform, according to the report.
Many of the concerns over Musk's-Twitter come after his promises to reevaluate content moderation policies, reverse indefinite bans on people like former President Donald Trump, and lay off thousands of employees. In a controversial decision, Musk announced that he would get rid of the current account verification system, and allow people to buy their way to a blue badge — which increases the risk that brands may be impersonated by scammers online.
