‘Woke’ corporations that have dominated social media giant Twitter for years are pulling their ads in the aftermath of Elon Musk’s takeover of the platform.
Pfizer on Thursday announced that it was ‘pausing’ ads, but it wasn’t the only corporation upset with Americans being allowed to discuss politics openly on the major digital platform.
“Food company General Mills Inc., Oreo maker Mondelez International Inc., Pfizer Inc. and Volkswagen AG’s Audi are among a growing list of brands that have temporarily paused their Twitter advertising in the wake of the takeover of the company by Elon Musk, according to people familiar with the matter,” WSJ reported.
The Wall Street Journal’s report ties the corporations’ moves directly to Elon Musk’s suspension of government and corporate censorship operations at Twitter.
“Some advertisers are concerned that Mr. Musk could scale back content moderation, which they worry would lead to an increase in objectionable content on the platform,” the report continued. “Others are temporarily halting their ads because of the uncertainty at the company as top executives exit and Mr. Musk considers a raft of changes, some of the people said.”
Kelsey Roemhildt, a spokeswoman for General Mills, confirmed to WSJ that the company has paused Twitter ads: “As always, we will continue to monitor this new direction and evaluate our marketing spend.” General Motors Co. paused its spending on the social-media platform last week.
A Twitter representative didn’t immediately respond to WSJ’s request for comment.
These four corporate giants are unlikely to be the last to signal their displeasure over Twitter opting out of rigging the national conversation ahead of midterm elections.
“Several ad buyers say they expect the number of brands pausing Twitter ads to rise,” WSJ added. “They say that the platform isn’t considered a must-buy for many advertisers, with far larger budgets going to tech giants such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Meta Platforms Inc., and that pausing makes sense during the bumpy transition under Mr. Musk.”
According to Bloomberg News, Musk is ridding the platform of nearly half of its employees beginning on Friday, down from an estimated 75% when he first took over the company. Elon Musk has axed the top executives at the company, which became notorious for pushing leftist narratives on the platform, while silencing conservative and independent voices that questioned them.
As reported at the Washington Post, when Elon Musk took control he immediately fired Twitter’s CEO, the CFO, and the head of legal policy, trust, and safety.
“As one of his first moves, he fired several top Twitter executives, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters,” the Post reported. “One of those confirmed the deal had closed.”
“CEO Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, and Vijaya Gadde, head of legal policy, trust, and safety, were all fired, according to the people. Sean Edgett, the company’s general counsel, was also pushed out, one of the people said,” the report added.
The corporations are also displeased with Elon Musk terminating their advertising contacts inside the company.
“Many executives on Madison Avenue are uneasy with the rash of sudden executive departures from Twitter’s advertising sales and marketing units,” WSJ reported. “Among those who have exited are Chief Customer Officer Sarah Personette, Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Berland, and Jean-Philippe Maheu, Twitter’s vice president of global client solutions. Those executives helped reassure advertisers that their ad dollars were being spent wisely and appropriately on Twitter.”
The corporate exodus comes amidst a resurgence of criticism for Big Pharma, which suggests a quid pro quo that the corporations had with media companies not to allow criticism of the ‘vaccines’ on the platform.