Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, told advertisers on Wednesday he wants to turn the social media platform into a force for truth and stop fake accounts in an effort efforts to reassure brands and advertising agencies that are stepping back.
Many days later Twitter confusing users and advertisers by cutting staff in half, more than 100,000 listeners watched to listen Musk talk about Twitter’s Spaces feature. Join Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of safety and integrity, who reassured users that Twitter will adhere to its policies on harmful content.
Musk, the richest man in the world, spoke calmly about his vision for Twitter, touting a fee of $8 (about Rs 650) for paid subscriptions as a remedy for bots and thinking about the possibility of one day offering money market accounts.
In the week since Musk took over, GM, General Mills and Mondelez International have pulled ads from Twitter, over concerns that Musk could relax content moderation rules. Major brands including Wendy’s, Chick-fil-A, General Motors and Ford Motor followed Musk’s talk on Wednesday.
Musk blamed Twitter’s “major revenue decline” on a coalition of civil rights groups that pressured advertisers, asking them to halt advertising globally after he fired about a year ago. half of the staff.
Directly referring to brands that have paused their ads, Musk said: “I understand if people want to give it a minute.” But he added that “the best way to see how things are evolving is to simply use Twitter.”
He said paid Twitter Blue subscriptions with a blue check mark will become more important and prominent, with users focusing on posts from verified users and ignoring other posts. other low quality content. The paid service will also discourage spammers who don’t want to pay for it, he added.
“There’s a big difference between free speech and free access,” Musk said, adding that Twitter would aim to limit the visibility of hateful content.
Musk also responded to a question about his own tweets that have upset some advertisers, including one, now deleted, related to a conspiracy theory about the attack on the Speaker’s husband. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, as well as a tweet urging voters to choose Republican candidates in the US midterm elections.
“Twitter has to be as neutral a platform as possible. That doesn’t mean I’m completely neutral,” he said.
Roth tweeted on Wednesday that Twitter has seen a 95% reduction in views of harmful content in search results compared to before Musk’s acquisition.
“My observation on Twitter over the last few weeks is that content is really improving, not getting worse,” Musk said. He told advertisers Twitter will move aggressively to suspend accounts that “engage in scams” or deceit.
He also promised a faster evolution of the Twitter service, opening up the possibility of peer-to-peer payments, money market accounts and, eventually, debit cards.
Musk was quick to make changes to the Twitter app, creating some confusion. Musk said in a tweet Wednesday that he has “deathed” a new “official” label for the Twitter account, the same day it started rolling out.
A Twitter executive later clarified that the platform would not issue official labels to individuals, but it would still be rolled out to commercial and government organizations.
© Thomson Reuters 2022
