Twitter ‘can not turn into a free-for-all hellscape’, says Elon Musk

Elon Musk has stated he doesn’t need Twitter to turn into a “free-for-all hellscape”, in a sudden bid to appease advertisers after the billionaire beforehand prompt that he wished the social media platform to rely much less on cash from entrepreneurs.

“Twitter clearly can not turn into a free-for-all hellscape the place something may be stated with no penalties!” he wrote in a letter posted on Thursday titled “Expensive Twitter Advertisers”.

Musk, a self-declared “free speech absolutist”, has repeatedly stated his acquisition of the corporate stemmed from a need to revive free speech to Twitter, triggering issues amongst advertisers that the social media platform may now not stay a secure place for manufacturers if it grew to become house to toxicity and abuse.

However within the letter he sought to reassure advertisers, which account for almost all of Twitter’s $5bn annual revenues, writing: “Along with adhering to the legal guidelines of the land, our platform should be heat, and welcoming to all, the place you’ll be able to select your required expertise in keeping with your preferences, simply as you’ll be able to select, for instance, to see films or play video video games starting from all ages to mature.”

He added that Twitter “aspired to be essentially the most revered promoting platform on the planet that strengthens your model and grows your enterprise”.

The put up comes only a day earlier than his $44bn deal to purchase Twitter is ready to shut, consistent with a deadline imposed by a Delaware court docket.

It marks an about-turn from Musk’s earlier feedback on the advertising and marketing enterprise. In 2019, Musk said on Twitter that he “hated promoting” and in April he wrote in a since-deleted tweet: “The ability of companies to dictate coverage is enormously enhanced if Twitter will depend on promoting cash to outlive.”

In an early presentation to potential buyers within the deal, Musk stated he wished to shift Twitter away from relying so closely on promoting — all the way down to 45 per cent of income from greater than 80 per cent in 2021, in keeping with somebody conversant in the doc. He additionally indicated that different earnings would come from subscriptions in addition to new enterprise traces in funds and information licensing.

However within the near-term, Musk now has to persuade advertisers to work with an organization he publicly accused of mendacity about faux accounts and its cyber safety practices, as he tried to wriggle out of his settlement to amass the enterprise.

The world’s richest man wrote on Thursday that he had purchased Twitter to “assist humanity”, not to make more cash. However he additionally stated that he believed that promoting “when completed proper, can delight, entertain and inform you”, including that it was “important to point out Twitter customers promoting that’s as related as attainable to their wants”.

Extra reporting by James Fontanella-Khan