A direct competitor of Tesla, the automaker is the first major advertiser to question its presence on the platform after the takeover of the social network by Elon Musk.
The automaker General Motors announced on Friday October 27 that it had decided to temporarily stop paying for advertisements on Twitter, thus becoming the first major advertiser to question its presence on the platform after the takeover of the social network by Elon Musk.
“We are talking to Twitter to understand the direction of the platform under its new owner”said the group in a message sent to AFP. “As is normal during a significant change on a media platform, we have temporarily suspended our paid advertising”, adds the company. GM, however, will continue to respond to customer inquiries on its official Twitter account.
A “hellish” platform
The group is a direct competitor of Tesla, an electric car manufacturer, also led by Elon Musk. But advertisers as a whole avoid being associated with non-consensual content. However, the new owner of Twitter presents himself as an ardent defender of freedom of expression, making supporters of strong content moderation fear a resurgence of hate speech or misinformation.
Elon Musk had tried to reassure advertisers by saying Thursday that he wanted to allow all opinions to be expressed on the site without making it a platform “hellish” where everything would be allowed. He then announced on Friday that he intended to equip the platform with a “content moderation council with very diverse viewpoints”without giving further details.