United Airlines confirmed on Friday that it has joined an ever-growing list of major corporations that have pulled the plug on advertising on Twitter in the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover $44 billion takeover of the social media platform.
A spokesperson for the airline said ad spending had been temporarily suspended without providing further details.
Shortly after news broke that the SpaceX founder had taken over Twitter last week, Musk wrote an open letter to advertisers in an attempt to reassure the market, telling big corporate customers that he didn’t want the platform to become a “free-for-all hellscape.”
Nonetheless, big-name advertisers have been spooked by Musk’s dramatic takeover which has been accompanied by promises to return controversial names to the platform.
In the last few days, advertisers fleeing the platform have included General Mills, Pfizer and Audi.
Musk said on Friday that Twitter had witnessed a “massive drop in revenue” as advertisers suspend their advertising campaigns.
“Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists,” Musk said in a tweet.
“Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.”
A coalition of civil rights groups has been ratcheting up the pressure on Musk and Twitter advertisers using the hashtag #StopToxicTwitter to call for a halt to advertising on the platform.
Despite United’s suspension of spending advertising dollars on Twitter, the airline remains active on the platform. In the last few months, United has used Twitter to tease new routes and a tie-up with Dubai-based Emirates.
An airiline with integrity
United is making a mistake if doing this just for business reasons but of course, they aren’t doing it for that reason. It’s amazing that little has changed on Twitter yet so many liberals and liberal companies are angry. It seems very like some are mentally disturbed even. Over a social media platform.