It’s hard to know what to think, but Elon Musk has been courting the progressives he’s been fighting for months.
The billionaire businessman has positioned himself as a champion of conservatives after acquiring Twitter last October for $44 billion. Once in control, he enforced a new content management policy: hands-off. Basically, users of the platform can post anything they want as long as they are not violating the law of the country they are in.
This policy marked a major break with Twitter 1.0, which set safeguards against misinformation, alternative facts, and hate speech of all kinds. This policy has led to the suspension of many accounts of right-wing as well as left-wing activists on the platform.
Musk fired most of the staff who were responsible for making sure the platform didn’t become “hell” so as not to scare off advertisers. Prior to Musk’s arrival, 91% of the site’s revenue was generated by advertising. Twitter 2.0’s new, permissive approach has delighted extremists and conspiracy theorists alike. But on the other hand, this was a problem for advertisers who left the platform in fear of seeing their ads linked to racist and anti-Semitic tweets. For example. Musk himself last month compared billionaire George Soros to a Jewish villain from the X-Men saga.
Advertisers are moving away
The financial impact has been massive on Twitter. From September to October 2022, Twitter’s top ten spent $71 million on advertising, according to Sensor Tower. Between January and February their spending dropped to $7.6 million, down 89% according to the company. Musk himself indicated that advertising revenue decreased by 50% between October 2022 and March 2023.
The New York Times, citing an internal presentation, recently reported that between April 1 and the first week of May, ad revenue fell 59% to $88 million compared to the same period a year earlier.
In an audio event on Twitter Space with presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on June 4, the billionaire, who is also the CEO of electric car maker Tesla (TSLA) – Get a free reportAdvertisers in Europe and North America said they were putting “too much pressure” on the company, which resulted in “half of our ads” staying away.
“They’re trying to bankrupt Twitter,” Musk said.
The billionaire tried to anticipate the exodus of advertisers by revamping Blue, the microblogging site’s subscription service. Raise the price to $7.99 per month for individuals and $1,000 per month for organizations. To convince users to subscribe, the popular account authentication check tag that was free was incorporated under Twitter 1.0. But it was said that subscriptions did not jump.
The company’s valuation continues to decline. In March, the techno king said Twitter was now worth $20 billion, half the price he paid to acquire it. But a recent estimate from financial giant Fidelity, which owns a stake, put the market value at $14.41 billion.
Musk Lemon and Madu provide a platform
Musk seems to want to stop the bleeding. He just made an unexpected offer to media personalities who are known to be progressive. They are former CNN anchor Don Lemon and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. The billionaire invited the two to produce programs on Twitter or broadcast their shows on the platform.
“Would be great if @maddow and donlemon and others on the left put their bids on this platform,” Musk posted on June 8.
He’s even ready to roll out the red carpet for the two stars and support them.
“No need for privacy or legal documents!” said the billionaire. “You will receive our full support. A digital city square for everyone.”
Musk’s tweet indicates that he appears to acknowledge that his strategy of waging war on progressives, many of whom have left Twitter, has not yielded the expected results. On May 24, he politicized Twitter by introducing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) to his nearly 143 million followers during an audio-in-space Twitter event plagued by technical problems. DeSantis announced his presidential candidacy during a friendly conversation between the two men.
It seems Musk is now trying to rebalance things.
If Lemon or Maddow accept his offer, it would be a huge victory for the billionaire, who could use it to appease some advertisers who are still reluctant to return to Twitter.
Lemon was fired from CNN on April 24, a move that came just over two months after he made sexist and anti-aging comments on air about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley.
In February, Lemon, co-host of CNN This Morning, said Haley, 51, wasn’t “in her prime” and suggested that women are “considered prime in their 20s, 30s, maybe 40s.”
Lemon later apologized.
CNN did not give a reason for Lemon’s departure but said in a tweet, “Don will forever be part of the CNN family, and we thank him for his contributions over the past 17 years. We wish him well and will encourage him in his future endeavors.”
The journalist, who has tweeted little since his ouster, was on stage on June 8 but did not respond to Musk’s offer. He posted a message about the recent indictment of former President Donald Trump.
Madhu, the star anchor on the liberal MSNBC news channel, was also present on Twitter on June 8 and did not hint at the billionaire’s offer.
Meanwhile, Musk is elated that former Fox News star Tucker Carlson, who was fired on April 24, posted his first show on Twitter this week, even though Fox has accused Carlson of breach of contract for appearing on another platform.