School by Zambezi: The State of Twitter: What Brands Need to Know

Twitter has been a heated topic of conversation since Elon Musk acquired the app on October 27, 2022. Everyone from media outlets, to current and previous employees to the app’s general user base have voiced an opinion on Musk’s leadership and the uncertain direction that he is taking the app. It is currently unclear what the future state of Twitter looks like. While it will be important to closely monitor the situation daily, here’s a look at the turn of events so far and what brands can do to protect their safety.

The Key Takeaway: Brand Safety Concerns Pose Potential Risk

Advocacy groups like NAACP, Media Matters For America and the Anti-Defamation League have called on advertisers to pause spending until Musk keeps the existing content policies and infrastructure Twitter had before he bought it. The hashtag #StopToxicTwitter boycotts against Twitter and has concerns on the uptick of extremist activity, racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and information.  IPG, one of the world’s largest advertising companies, issued a recommendation through its media agencies for clients to temporarily pause their spending with Twitter Ads because of moderation concerns. 

Twitter has historically been a sought after destination for marginalized groups,  so considering the recent uncertainty, many have also voiced concerns that the sense of community and accessibility could suffer.  Over the last 15 years, Twitter has been a uniquely accessible space with barrier eliminating features. For example, Twitter introduced alt text in 2016, which allowed people who are blind or have low-vision access to images through printed descriptions. Last year, the addition of auto-captions reached people who are deaf or hard of hearing with subtitled videos. But after Musk reportedly cut the team that worked on Twitter's accessibility features, many are worried about new development. Historically, Twitter has been praised for being forward thinking, and forums where Black Lives Matter and MeToo movements circulated heavily. A spokesperson for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization that advocates for free speech, shared, “So many people were able to see how folks in different regions of the globe, different parts of the world and different parts of this country were connecting with one another to talk about racial justice issues [..] Under Musk, Richman says those kinds of protections Twitter afforded to marginalized communities appear to be eroding.” 

From an advertiser perspective, since Musk’s Twitter takeover saga kicked off in April, there’s been a 30% pullback in ad spending on the platform. Brands like Ford, Audi, General Mills, Pfizer and more have pulled promoted ads. Twitter has since suffered a “massive drop in revenue” as advertisers had begun cutting spends with Twitter Ads due to Elon Musk mentioning that he would loosen Twitter’s content rules, which could lead to a surge in misinformation and other toxic content that is not brand-safe. Advertisers do not want their ads adjacent to abuse, harassment, spam, racism, misogyny, slurs, and the like.

The typical way to make advertisers comfortable—to ensure what they call “brand safety”— is restricting harmful speech on the platform. Elon Musk said that ads appearing next to hate speech “isn’t great” and pitched the newly launched Twitter Blue as a way to decrease hate speech on the platform. Regardless of the recent PR around Elon Musk and Twitter, Twitter Ads will still be active for advertisers who choose to still run ads on the platform and none of the ad placements, targeting, or rates will be impacted (as of now). Some major brands who have not pulled their Twitter Ads nor are affected by the news include McDonalds, Macy’s, IBM, and National Geographic. In addition to brand safety issues, there has been a growth in fake brand accounts in recent weeks. This includes fake accounts for Musk’s own companies Tesla and SpaceX, as well as for Apple, Nintendo, LeBron James, and Joe Biden. 

Looking beyond Twitter, many Twitter users acknowledge that Twitter has no perfect substitute, but among alternative platforms, a front-runner has begun to emerge called Mastodon. A stream of Twitter users in recent days has migrated to Mastodon, which describes itself as a “free, open-source decentralized social media platform.” It was launched in 2016 by a software developer seeking to create a viable alternative to Twitter and has passed over 2 million active monthly users already. 

Suggestion: Proceed Organically with Caution and Pause Paid Support

Although there is uncertainty around the future of internal infrastructure of the Twitter company, its paid verification offerings, user base and more, we do not think this substantiates brands abandoning their existing Twitter presence especially if there is an active fan audience to connect to. Consider the level of effort for custom executions and allocating resources to more stable, and effective channels such as Instagram and TikTok, contingent on post-level performance and strategic and audience efforts. Continuous assessment of the platform is recommended to determine the best next steps for all brands. 

Timeline of Events

Sources:  Social Media Today |  The Verge | Fox Business| Fox Business | Nature | VOX, NYTimes, Slate | Engadget |  Rolling Stone | Newsweek | AppleInsider | LA Times | NYT | CNN | CBS News | NPR | AdWeek