GM Pauses Advertising on Twitter, Others Plan to Boycott After Musk’s Takeover

Days after Elon Musk took over the headquarters at Twitter, the micro-blogging platform has found itself under fire from brands and existing advertisers. Some advertisers have even planned to boycott Twitter if Elon Musk decides to allow former US President Donald Trump back on the platform.

Musk had previously called Twitter’s Trump ban a “morally bad decision” and “foolish in the extreme.” Further in May, he pointed out that the ban was “a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.”

On January 8, Twitter officially stated – it had permanently suspended Trump’s account “due to the risk of further incitement of violence” due to the Capitol riots which took place after Trump lost the 2020 presidential election.

Much recently, General Motors, the Detroit car manufacturing giant, announced on Saturday that it would halt its advertising operations on Twitter. Being a direct competitor to Elon Musk’s Tesla electric car company, GM addressed leading media channels, that they would be delaying their advertising while their internal team tries to assess Twitter’s new course. GM added that while it would still utilize the platform to communicate with customers, it would forego paying for advertisements.

“We are engaging with Twitter to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership. As is normal course of business with a significant change in a media platform, we have temporarily paused our paid advertising. Our customer care interactions on Twitter will continue.”

The Detroit-based corporation was among the first to announce billions of dollars in investment under CEO Mary Barra to more effectively compete with Tesla in the battery electric vehicle market.

A representative for Ford Motor, another competitor of Tesla, said that the car company does not now advertise on Twitter and did not partake even before Elon Musk’s take-private agreement. “We will continue to evaluate the direction of the platform under the new ownership,” they added.

When Twitter’s board approved Musk’s offer to buy the firm and take it private earlier this year, Henrik Fisker, CEO of EV startup Fisker Inc., mysteriously suspended his Twitter account. Fisker Inc. still continues to use & operate on Twitter, like every other automotive brand uses the social media platform for customer engagement, marketing and promotion.