The first consequences of this historic take. Automaker General Motors said on Friday it has decided to temporarily stop paying for ads on Twitter, becoming the first major advertiser to question its presence on the platform after Elon Musk took over the social network.
“As is normal during a significant change in a media platform, we have temporarily suspended our paid advertising,” the company adds. However, GM will continue to respond to customer inquiries on its official Twitter account. The group is a direct competitor of Tesla, also led by Elon Musk.
Fear of moderation
But advertisers as a whole avoid being associated with non-consensual content. However, Twitter’s new owner comes across as a staunch defender of free speech, leading supporters of strong content moderation to fear a resurgence of hate speech or disinformation.
In response to the Tesla chief tweeting “the bird is free” on Thursday night after taking control of the platform, acquired for $44 billion, European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton tweeted on Friday : “In Europe, the bird fly according to our European standards.”
Elon Musk tried to reassure advertisers by saying on Thursday that he wanted to allow all opinions to be expressed on the site without turning it into a “hell” platform where everything would be allowed.
He then announced on Friday that he intended to provide the platform with a “content moderation council with very diverse points of view”, without giving more details for the moment.
Source: BFM TV
