Ad revenues at Twitter/X are down 60 per cent according to the site’s owner Elon Musk, and he’s blaming the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for placing “pressure on advertisers” according to his own Tweets.
Musk has said that the NGO, which specialises in combating extremism and anti-semitism, “almost succeeded in killing X/Twitter!”
Musk added in a lengthy series of tweets that “based on what we’ve heard from advertisers, ADL seems to be responsible for most of our revenue loss.”
He also claimed that the ADF has falsely accused both himself and his $44bn online platform of anti-semitism in a tweet on Monday.
In a typically Musk-like turn of events, the Tesla billionaire has now threatened to sue the ADL for non-other-than defamation on his platform:
On Saturday, Musk suggested that Twitter users should vote in a poll on whether the ADL be banned on his radically pro-free speech social media platform, though yesterday he attempted to clarify his stance stating that: “To be super clear, I’m pro free speech, but against anti-Semitism of any kind.”
Twitter’s ad revenue fell by roughly half shortly after Musk bought the company in October of last year, as advertisers cut spending in response to Musk’s relaxation on controls against unadulterated free speech, which some might consider hate speech.
In June he installed former NBCUniversal CEO Linda Yaccarino as CEO following a typically showmanlike online poll over whether he should resign.
57.5% of around 18m Twitter uses suggested he should, clearing the path for Yaccarino to recover the missing millions of Twitter’s ad revenues.
