General Motors is suspending its advertising on Twitter, the company announced Friday, claiming it was pausing to evaluate the platform’s new direction under its new billionaire owner Elon Musk.
The automaker claimed its interactions with customers through social media will not change and that it is only pausing its purchase of advertisements.
ELON MUSK REASSURES ADVERTISERS TWITTER WON’T BE A ‘FREE FOR ALL HELLSCAPE’
“We are engaging with Twitter to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership. As is normal course of business with a significant change in a media platform, we have temporarily paused our paid advertising. Our customer care interactions on Twitter will continue,” the company told CNBC.
The suspension comes a day after Musk, who owns GM’s largest rival, Tesla, and is the CEO of SpaceX, took over Twitter. Musk had been talking about purchasing Twitter for months but stalled the process with multiple legal conflicts, including accusations that the platform was dishonest about its public filings for the number of users on the platform. Twitter retaliated by filing a lawsuit in the Delaware Court of Chancery to force Musk to uphold the original offer. Musk was initially resistant but gave in and agreed to purchase the company at the original price earlier this month.
Musk told advertisers in a note on Thursday that he would ensure the platform does not become a “free for all hellscape” and would be open to everyone. Musk added he bought the platform because he “loved” humanity and that his goal was to make the platform the most well-respected advertising platform in the world.
“I didn’t do it because it would be easy,” Musk said in his statement. “I didn’t do it to make more money.”
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Twitter’s advertising presence is limited compared to other Big Tech companies, such as Facebook and Google. Only 48% of marketers used Twitter to advertise their clients, according to a 2021 survey.
Musk has said that Tesla does not pay for traditional advertising but rewards those who promote its brand on social media platforms by giving them exclusive access to events and early access to its latest technology.
