General Motors said late Friday it would halt paid advertising on Twitter after Elon Musk’s purchase of the social media company was completed.
GM said it was ‘talking with Twitter to determine the company’s future direction,’ after it stopped advertising on the platform last week.
Musk is also the CEO of GM’s rival, Tesla. Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
According to GM, “as is the norm with large media platforms undergoing significant alterations, we have temporarily halted our paid advertisements.” The Detroit automaker affirmed that its “customer care interactions on Twitter will continue.”
In the second quarter, ad revenue accounted for more than 90 percent of Twitter’s revenue. Some ad agencies and brands were already concerned about Twitter’s future at a presentation for advertisers in May.
Musk’s open-letter tweet on the eve of the deal’s closing, in which he directly appealed to advertisers, is a clear indication that Twitter cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!
On Friday, Musk said in a tweet that Twitter is establishing a content moderation council that will include ‘various perspectives.’ He also stated that no major content decisions or account renewals will occur before the council meets.
In May, the self-described “free speech absolutist” said that he would reverse Twitter’s ban on former US President Donald Trump, who was removed from the microblogging site in January 2021 after incitement of violence following the storming of the US Capitol.
Despite Trump’s declaration that he will not return to social media, the question of reinstating Trump has been seen as a litmus test of how far Musk will go in making changes.
