Several brands abandon their advertising on Twitter due to decisions by Elon Musk

US agribusiness giant General Mills on Thursday suspended its advertising spending on Twitter, a further sign that advertisers are concerned about the ambiguous view on content moderation by tycoon Elon Musk, the platform’s new owner.

“We paused advertising on Twitter,” Kelsey Roemhildt, a spokeswoman for General Mills, which groups the Cheerios and Häagen-Dazs brands, confirmed to AFP. “We will continue to monitor the evolution of the situation and evaluate our marketing expenses,” she added.

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Since Friday, a day after the purchase of Twitter by the boss of Tesla and SpaceX, the American vehicle manufacturer General Motors indicated that it temporarily stopped its advertising payments on that platform.

The Wall Street Journal said Thursday that Mondelez international, the Oreo cookie maker, Pfizer and Audi (Volkswagen) had also made similar decisions.

Advertisers, who account for 90% of the social network’s revenue, fear that relaxing content moderation rules will make the platform inhospitable. Most brands prefer to avoid any association with certain content.

In his attempt to reassure brands, Musk wrote them a letter promising that Twitter would not become a “hellish” platform, “where free rein can be given without consequence.”

He also promised to create a content moderation council, as well as to wait a few weeks before reauthorizing accounts of some banned personalities, such as Donald Trump.

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But neither advertisers nor numerous NGOs seem to be convinced.

Associations for the defense of democracy and the fight against disinformation wrote an open letter to the 20 largest advertisers on Twitter, including Coca-Cola, Google and Disney, urging them to pressure Elon Musk to stop advertising due to fears that the platform opens spaces for hate speech or misinformation.