Twitter Continues To Lose Ad Revenue As Content Moderation Falters

Elon Musk's Twitter 2.0 is losing serious amounts of ad revenue.

A Europe-based revenue analyst for Twitter revealed that the microblogging platform is seeing a glaring decline in advertisement booking, leading to a sizable revenue drop year over year, per Platformer.

This drop follows Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter, the mass exodus of advertisers and Twitter employees, and the resulting faltering of misinformation standards.

Twitter Ad Revenue Drop Details

Twitter's revenue analyst in Europe revealed in a Slack message that Twitter is experiencing a 49% drop in weekly advertisement bookings, describing it as "a significant decline."

He then added that the company's ad revenue in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) has plummeted by 15% year over year as a result.

The analyst's findings were the latest in the grim updates Twitter has been receiving regarding its ad revenue loss since Oct. 31.

A group of analysts found that $17.7 million in EMEA revenue is already at risk after tracking advertisers who paused their advertisements on Twitter in a Google Sheet following Musk's takeover. This finding does not include the $12 million of anticipated losses in the UK, considered the company's largest market in the region.

Unfortunately, the traffic coming from Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the ongoing World Cup failed to increase the microblogging platform's quarterly revenue, with one former Twitter executive calling it "catastrophic."

These findings came at an unfortunate time for Twitter, which may be embattled with Apple at the moment. You may remember that Apple recently stopped advertising on Twitter and demanded Musk to make moderation concessions on Twitter or have Twitter be withheld from its App Store otherwise, per Macrumors.

Musk, in response, posted on Twitter that Apple has mostly stopped advertising on the microblogging platform, asking people and Apple CEO Tim Cook if the company hates free speech in America.

You may remember that Apple also used the same terms with Parler following the Capitol Siege on Jan. 6 due to its loose moderation, leading to it being removed from its App Store as it violates Apple's rules against objectionable content, per CNBC.

Twitter's Content Moderation Dilemma

Unfortunately, the app's future on Apple is bleak considering that its content moderation team is in shambles due to his layoffs and "hardcore work" ultimatum. Additionally, Musk has yet to form his promised content moderation council - a promise he has yet to fulfill following his takeover.

His failure to fulfill this promise led to the #StopToxicTwitter coalition to call upon Twitter's remaining advertisers to pause their ads on the platform to stop supporting "a platform where people can incite an insurrection at the Capitol and still be allowed to 'spew hate speech and violent conspiracies.'"

Additionally, Twitter's former trust and safety chief, Yoel Roth, took back his statement that Twitter is safer with Musk at the helm, per Business Insider. Instead, he is saying that Twitter is not safer under Musk's leadership as far as content moderation is concerned.