Musk breaks promise to form Twitter moderation panel, blames activists

Expand Theo Wargo / Staff | WireImage

When "Chief Twit" Elon Musk launched a poll to decide whether or not to restore Donald Trump's Twitter account, many wondered what happened to Musk's plan to form a council of moderation of "widely diverse" content to help him weigh any decision. to reverse the permabans. He announced the plan after meeting with civil rights groups earlier this month, but has never mentioned it since. It took four days without Trump tweeting before Musk finally provided an update on this oversight board he never formed.

In a tweet apparently blaming activists for Twitter's advertising woes, Musk claimed he only promised to form the council on the condition that activists promise to stop pushing advertisers to boycott his platform .

"A broad coalition of political/social activist groups agreed not to try to kill Twitter by depriving us of ad revenue if I agreed to this condition," Musk tweeted. "They broke the deal."

Some activists who attended the meeting tweeted to confirm they never made such a deal with Musk, including Free Press co-CEO Jessica Gonzalez, who helped lead a #StopToxicTwitter coalition pressuring Twitter's top 20 advertisers to boycott the platform.

"I don't know who Musk is talking about here, but I met him a few weeks ago with civil rights leaders, and I also co-lead the #StopToxicTwitter coalition which is calling on advertisers to pause ads until til he right the ship,” Gonzalez tweeted. “I never made a deal like this.”

NAACP President Derrick Johnson backed Gonzalez in his own tweet denying that the activists made a deal with Musk.

“We would never make a deal like this,” Johnson tweeted. “Democracy always comes first. The decisions taken on Twitter are dangerous and it is our duty, as since our creation, to denounce the threats to our democracy. Hate speech and violent conspiracies can have no refuge. »

When Ars previously reported on Musk's encounter with activists, it was immediately clear that Gonzalez planned to continue promoting the #StopToxicTwitter campaign. Gonzalez said at the time that Musk's promises, including forming a council to review content decisions, were "just the start of a long process" to hold Twitter accountable for meeting the standards. communities.

Johnson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Gonzalez told Ars that Musk was using activists as a scapegoat for his own poor brand safety decision-making.

“Musk is losing advertisers because he acted irresponsibly, slashing content moderation teams that help keep brands safe and slashing sales teams responsible for nurturing advertiser relationships ", Gonzalez told Ars. "The main culprit behind the exodus of advertisers on Twitter is Elon Musk."

Twitter has closed its communications service and could not be reached for comment.

Twitter is now losing too many advertisers

Meanwhile, Musk's efforts to retain advertisers as Twitter's key revenue stream have apparently reached a breaking point.

The Washington Post conducted an analysis of brand data on Twitter and reported that Musk "can't afford to lose" advertisers anymore. Fourteen of Twitter's top 50 advertisers have pulled out, including Jeep and Mars, which The Post said were two of Twitter's top advertising investors in the six months before Musk took over Twitter. Kellogg, Verizon, Merck and Samuel Adams Boston Brewery are other brands reported by the Post as stopping ads on Twitter.

Only Mar...