JVTech news “We tried peace for two years, now it’s war”: why is Elon Musk so angry against the advertisers on X?
Published on 08/16/2024 at 8:20 pm
Facing a significant drop in advertising revenue over the past two years, the X platform, owned by Elon Musk, has decided to take legal action against certain potential advertisers accused of illegal boycott. A new chapter opens in the history of the former Twitter.
At the end of 2022, during the weeks after the billionaire Elon Musk took over Twitter, the latter made hasty and sometimes quite violent decisions: we can mention the massive dismissal of thousands of employees on the platform, but also changes in the fiasco rule about verified accounts, which led to identity theft of many people and brands. In a short time, Twitter’s reputation declined, and although more teams were still regaining control at many points, some large advertisers decided not to advertise on Twitter anymore.
Time has passed and Twitter, now X, is still there, with a decidedly different atmosphere. Those who believed that Elon Musk would be the sink of the social network are obviously wrong, but This does not mean that X is doing well financially.
A video published on X, which caused a stir
on the 6th of August, Linda Yaccarino, director of X who was directly appointed by Elon Musk, published a video on her personal account. It is aimed directly at users of the social network. She explains that she was there “shocked” by the fact that a “A group of companies organized a systematic illegal boycott against X”. “It’s bad”she says, before announcing the platform’s intention to take these companies to court.
A publication followed by another, this time aimed at the platform’s advertisers. Once again, Linda Yccarino who surprises her : “After a career in media and advertising, I thought I’d seen it. Then I read the US House Judiciary Committee report titled “Garm’s (Global Alliance for Responsible Media) Harm” last month. The report revealed that their investigation found evidence of an illegal boycott against many companies, including X.”
“It’s war now”
The publication was forwarded by Elon Musk who, so often, made his unfiltered opinion: “We made peace for two years, now it’s war”.
Complaint against trust which was immediately filed by X. He points la Global Media Alliance (GARM), but also its parent company World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and members of the GARMincluding CVS Health, Orsted, Mars and Unilever. “We did not take this decision lightly, but it is a direct consequence of their actions. The illegal behavior of these organizations and their leaders cost X billions of dollars.”author Linda Yccarino.
“The consequence – perhaps the intention – of this boycott was to take public space around the world for X users, whether sports fans, gamers, journalists, activists, parents or political and business leaders. Simply put, people are harmed when the marketplace of ideas is undermined and some unfunded opinions are compared to others as part of an illegal boycott. This behavior is a stain on a great industry, and it cannot be tolerated. »
According to the boss of the social network, X has greatly developed its potential for advertisers in the last two years : “According to the old metric, Twitter’s active user minutes, as of August 2022, people spent 7.2 billion active minutes on the platform. Today, this figure is more than 9 billion, an increase of 25%. The same goes for video – even compared to last year, daily videos increased by 45% to 8.2 billion. X innovates and develops »she said, explaining that X has developed tools to help advertisers design their campaigns more effectively.
“We are compelled to seek justice”
Linda Yccarino therefore believes that the social network has done everything possible to improve the integration of advertising campaigns on its platform, and that there is no other reason for boycotting X than the clear desire to harm it. “Depending on what the legal process reveals, we are compelled to seek justice for the harm caused by these defendants and potential others.”The letter continues, which insinuates that X may not be the only victim in the story. “This case is not just about damages – we need to fix a broken ecosystem that allows this illegal activity to happen. »
For his part, Elon Musk, who was recently presented in Cannes for a festival dedicated to advertising, confirmed that the message was not directed to advertisers as a whole, but only to those who want to interfere with the content being broadcast. “Advertisers have the right to display themselves alongside content that is compatible with their brands”he said. “What is not cool is their insistence that content they disagree with cannot be on the platform. »
However, this complaint, and the subsequent trial, should be of great help to X. which takes the brunt of advertising: GARM is a collection of brands and companies that account for more than 90% of global advertising spend. The outcome of the case could therefore have significant consequences for the future of the platform.