Civil Rights Coalition Urges Advertisers to Stop Advertising on Twitter, After Donald Trump's Account Restored by Elon Musk

Former US President Donald Trump is now active again on Twitter. (photo: Twitter @NickAdamsinusA)

JAKARTA - A coalition of civil rights activists on Monday, November 21, urged Twitter advertisers to issue a statement about their intention to withdraw their ads from the social media platform after its new owner Elon Musk lifted the ban on the twitter account owned by former US President Donald Trump.

Trump's account, which Twitter had suspended after the US Capitol riots on January 6, 2021 citing the risk of further incitement to violence, was reactivated last weekend. Meanwhile, around 90% of Twitter's revenue comes from digital ad sales.

Groups in Twitter's Stop Toxic coalition complained that Musk had promised advertisers that Twitter would take a considered approach to reinstating banned accounts and convening new content moderation boards. However no such board was formed last Monday.

"That is a clear violation," Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters, a left-leaning media watchdog which is part of the coalition, told Reuters on Monday. He said that Musk "lied from the start."

"In less than three weeks Musk has broken every promise he made to civil rights leaders and advertisers," said Jessica Gonzalez, co-chief executive of media and democracy group Free Press, which is also part of the Twitter coalition, in a statement. their press releases.

Twitter, which lost most of its communications team when Musk cut staff shortly after taking over the platform, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the media.

This month, Musk complained that pressure from activists had led to a "significant drop in revenue" as many advertisers pulled their ads.

Twitter itself began reinstating accounts that were banned or suspended over the weekend including comedian Kathy Griffin as well as Trump, and even Kanye West's account.

The platform also reactivated the personal Twitter account of US House Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene last Monday.

According to Carusone, of Twitter's top 100 advertisers by total spend this year, 51 have stopped advertising according to private conversations with coalitions, public statements or spending data provided by ad measurement company Pathmatics.

The coalition also asked brands that have not published their intent to pause their Twitter ads, to issue a public statement and assist in generating pressure on the other 49 advertisers who did not take action.

"You have to take a stand and draw the line," says Carusone. "It's important for big spenders to say they've stopped."

"The coalition will consider mentioning the company later this week if they have not issued a public statement regarding discontinuing the advertising," it added.

Musk in a tweet last Saturday stated that Twitter would reactivate the former president's account after a narrow majority voted "yes" to Musk's poll on the matter.

The names atop Twitter's list of top advertisers have shifted from the week before Musk closed his deal to acquire the company. Big brands like HBO and Mondelez were Twitter's top two advertisers in the week before the acquisition, according to data from Pathmatics.

#HowToUpsetABillionaire RETWEAT a picture of him wearing a bowtie pic.twitter.com/FwAExyznKY

— Donald J. Drumpf (@RealDonalDrumpf) November 20, 2022

But between November 10 and November 16, after Musk laid off half of Twitter's staff, the top two biggest advertisers were FinanceBuzz.io, a personal finance website and Trendytowns, a Singapore-based e-commerce site.

Pathmatics data shows that the top 100 advertisers between November 10 and November 16 spent an estimated USD 23.6 million on Twitter, down from the USD 24.2 million spent between October 16 and October 22 before Musk became the owner of Twitter.

Meanwhile, Trump's own account has now started making tweets on Twitter, on November 21. Whereas previously, the former US president admitted that he did not want to return to Twitter even though his account was restored.