Twitter stands to make millions of pounds a year via adverts for brands like Apple and Amazon appearing alongside the toxic tweets of controversially unbanned accounts, a new report suggests.
A number of major companies pulled paid-for promotions from the platform in the wake of Elon Musk‘s takeover, citing concerns about its direction under the control of the self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist”.
Rapidly falling advertising revenue fuelled suggestions that the company could face bankruptcy but big spenders including Amazon and Apple did make a return despite Musk’s decision to reinstate several banned users like misogynistic influencer Andrew Tate and prominent neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin.
According to new research by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), tweets from such accounts have since appeared alongside promotions from major brands.
The group accuses Twitter of cashing in on hate.
A CCDH analysis has estimated that ads appearing next to such controversial content could help generate $19m (£15.6m) in revenue for Twitter per year.
One example the CCDH says it found shows an Amazon Prime Video ad next to a tweet by Anglin in which he claims the “only career that a woman is actually capable of on merit is prostitution”.
Another appears to show an Apple TV ad alongside far-right conspiracy theorist Rogan O’Handley, in which he promotes the debunked claim that Ukraine was developing biological weapons with the assistance of the US government.
Sky News has contacted Amazon and Apple for comment, while Twitter no longer has a press relations team.
‘Bad actors’ are ‘highly profitable’
The ad revenue estimate was generated using a projection of how many times tweets from 10 notable reinstated accounts would be seen over the course of a year, the frequency of ads on Twitter, and how much they cost.
Over the course of the study, tweets from the chosen profiles – which also included far-right conspiracy theorists and climate change deniers – were seen 2.5 billion times.
That means they are on track to be seen 20 billion times a year, the CCDH says, with promotions appearing at an average rate of almost once every seven tweets.
At a cost to the advertiser of $6.46 per 1,000 views, it means that the money from promoted tweets displayed alongside the chosen influencers’ posts could add up to the overall projected revenue of $19bn.
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CCDH chief Imran Ahmed accused Musk of reinstating the accounts purely because “it’s highly profitable”.
“Just 10 of these reinstated bad actors will generate billions of Twitter views, which Elon Musk sells to household brands and advertisers, such as Apple, Amazon, and the NFL,” he said.
“We are calling on the world’s leading brands to show leadership, stop their Twitter advertising immediately, and stop directly funding hate and misinformation.”
