Advertisers Brace for Twitter's Content Moderation Battlefield

The hours following Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter have validated critics’ worst fear: an uptick in hate speech and misinformation on the platform, spurring marketers to temporarily stop advertising, citing a lack of trust in its future. In its latest stunt, Twitter froze its employees' access to internal tools used for content moderation and other policy enforcement, limiting the staff’s ability to clamp down on misinformation ahead of a major U.S. election, per a Bloomberg report. One leading CPG company that owns over 50 global brands has been reducing its advertising activity on Twitter. The director of global media at the company, who spoke on background, said the reduction was in place before Musk’s ownership since the company has grown wary of the platform throughout the acquisition saga. The recent rise in hate speech and lack of content moderation policies have cemented its plans to halt advertising. “The very little progress that we've made on Twitter has been completely damaged because there's no trust,” said the director. “We need confidence that Twitter will be a viable platform for news content and entertainment that is not dangerous to brands.” Agency Media.Monks is waiting to hear more from Musk about his decisions on platform policy, but clients are unsettled over Twitter’s future over content moderation, according to founder and executive chairman of S4Capital, Sir Martin Sorrell. Other agencies are having meetings with the new owner this week to discuss its future. Another global media and marketing solution company has advised its clients to temporarily stop their Twitter spend for the next week until they have more clarity on Twitter's plans for trust and safety, a marketing exec told Adweek. Agency networks Havas Media and IPG are advising clients to stop spending on Twitter, the WSJ reported. The hard part is he keeps saying he hasn’t changed policies, but we've seen an increase in bad behavior on the platform. Senior executive of media operations at a global ad agency The most pressing questions facing Twitter’s new era as a Musk-declared “free-speech absolutist” platform have left the ad industry anxious about the future of content moderation on Twitter, or lack thereof. Changes in the company’s management, including the sacking of Twitter’s legal policy head Vijay Gadde, along with proliferating misinformation on the attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, personally tweeted (and deleted) by Musk, and rise in racial slurs by nearly 500% in the 12 hours after Musk finalized deal, has raised red flags amongst advertisers who are concerned about his leadership. “Advertisers care about brand safety on Twitter. But the ongoing spike in hate-speech and misinformation is opposite to what brands want,” Traction’s CEO Adam Kleinberg told Adweek. Twitter Loses Its Top Liaison to Advertisers as Sarah Personette Resigns Spike in hate speech Soon after Musk’s Twitter acquisition, a study by Montclair State University found hate speech-relevant content was tweeted around 4,778 times between the hour of 12:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. October 28. This included hate speech related to racism, homophobia, transphobia, and antisemitism. Prior to Musk's acquisition, hate-relevant content was never higher than 84 times per hour. Although Musk announced he would be forming a new content-moderation council that would bring together “diverse views” on this issue in his tweet, advertisers are wary. “The hard part is he keeps saying he hasn’t changed policies, but we've seen an increase in bad behavior on the platform,” a senior executive of media operations at a global ad agency, who spoke on background, told Adweek. Advertisers are largely frustrated with the lack of communication on Musk’s end. Aside from a tweet directed to advertisers last week, some ad agencies have received an email from the billionaire. “It’s a very simple email which says, ‘We're here for you,' but it doesn't address anything,” the executive said. Musk’s suggestions to reverse the permanent ban against Donald Trump, while giving credence to the disinformation on Pelosi’s attacker, have largely aggravated the anxiety among advertisers who have no intentions to fund a hostile environment, several sources said. “To let people back on who have been banned, that's going create a situation where advertisers will spend less on the platform,” the head of media investments at a leading media buying company told Adweek. “If you want to run a business that is primarily funded on advertising dollars, then you have to figure out how to police the users and the content to keep bad actors out of the mix.” 'The Bird Is Freed,' but Will Advertisers Stay? Third-party auditors and thoughtful policies Albeit no platform has perfected content moderation, advertisers hope Twitter to emulate platforms such as YouTube’s approach to content moderation, where it's able to sniff out harmful content and keep the environment a brand-friendly place. This means including third-party auditors and tools in place that effectively identify harmful content. “I want to see evidence that Twitter will not become a cesspool where people are allowed to hurt other people through speech and disinformation,” Kleinberg said. Advertisers agreed they want to see thoughtful policies that enable free speech but with a clear distinction between political opinions and hate comments or misinformation. “If [Musk] could get it right, either with subscription revenues, or ad revenues, or a mixture of the two, it could be really interesting,” said Sorrell. We have contacted Twitter and will update this with its response.