Elon Musk's Twitter takeover drives more than half of top advertisers away

A newly published report from Media Matters America claims that half of Twitter's top advertisers have left the company in the last month.

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The nonprofit media research organization published the report on November 22 that claims 50 of Twitter's top advertisers have either announced or stopped advertising on the social media platform entirely, with these top 50 advertisers representing close to $2 billion in advertising spending on Twitter since 2020. Notably, these advertisers, which have now purportedly backed away from Twitter, accounted for about $750 million in advertising in 2022.

Furthermore, as of November 21, there were approximately seven advertisers that are reducing spending on Twitter to what Media Matters claims is "close to nothing," and these advertisers have spent more than $255 million on Twitter since 2020 and about $118 million in 2022. The organization labeled most of the big brands in its list as "quiet quitters", the companies that reduced advertising spending on Twitter without making a public announcement or statement.

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Not all companies were silent quitters, as brands such as Chevrolet, Chipotle, Ford, Jeep, and others made public announcements about where they stand with Twitter. All of these departures or paused spending on Twitter have occurred since Musk has taken the reins at the company, with many of the brands discussing concerns with content moderation policies, and some even explaining that since Musk's takeover, ad performance "fell significantly" along with engagement, etc.

However, the brand doesn't necessarily blame Musk for the reduction in ad performance, citing other factors such as a potential "shift in users on the platform," but that regardless of the reason, it was a real problem that "cost us real money".

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In other Elon Musk-Twitter news, the SpaceX CEO has said that if Google and Apple decide to boot Twitter from iOS and Android, he'll consider creating an "alternative" mobile device. Musk said he hoped it doesn't come to that, but he would follow through with the idea if it did. Lastly, a Twitter employee has gone to a High Court to obtain a temporary injunction that prevents Elon Musk from firing them. If you are interested in reading more about any of those stories, check out the below and above links.

• Read more: Twitter employee goes to a High Court to stop Elon Musk from firing her

In other news NASA's Orion spacecraft enters the Moon's orbit and is on its way to breaking a record that was originally set in 1970 by the Apollo 13 mission. The Orion spacecraft will reach a distance of 270,000 miles from Earth. To read more on that story, check out the below link.

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