In a recent SEC filing, Twitter admitted its core advertising business could be at risk, in light of SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk's $44 billion purchase of the social platform, according to TechCrunch.
The report also cites Twitter's concerns with hiring and retaining quality employees, now that Musk will be running the company, as early as this fall.
Are current Twitter executives and board members worried that Musk's pledge to bring free speech back to the platform would undo Twitter initiatives over the last few years, or do the execs fear a Musk-enhanced Twitter won't be "brand safe" for users?
Over the last two weeks, Musk has yet to lay out his full strategic plan for the platform. But he's tweeting daily to his group of nearly 91 million followers.
All this begs the question: If Musk — the world's richest man — has total control of the Twitter product by year's end, would that make the current execs and board members' opinions moot?
Speaking at TED 2022, Musk reportedly said:
"My strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization," said Musk.
"I don’t care about the economics at all."
The tech mogul later quantified the notion of "free speech."
"If in doubt, let the speech — let it exist," said Musk. "If it's a gray area, I would say, let the tweet exist."
"But in a case where there’s perhaps a lot of controversy, you would not necessarily want to promote that tweet."
Twitter will reportedly make a presentation to media ad buyers at the 2022 Newsfronts conference later this week.
In its SEC filing, Twitter claims it generates the "substantial majority of our revenue from advertising" and the loss of advertisers could substantially harm its business.
"We believe that our ability to compete effectively for advertiser spend depends upon many factors" ... including "our reputation and the strength of our brand relative to our competitors, including advertisers’ perception of the health and safety of our platform."
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