Twitter was failing when Elon Musk purchased the social media platform in October 2022. He radically changed it — deliberately renaming it X to distinguish the platform as something far broader. He sought to make X fair by helping independent journalists and creators make money from the platform by sharing advertising revenues. But pressure from progressives made advertisers flee, so Musk filed a lawsuit to bring them back.

Progressives had convinced advertisers that Musk’s elimination of Twitter’s biased censorship of conservatives — including allowing figures like President Donald Trump back on the platform — would allow disinformation, hate speech, and offensive content. The boycott resulted in a reported 55-60% drop in U.S. ad revenue from 2022 to 2023.

However, hypocritically, Musk’s alignment with Trump after the 2024 election boosted investor confidence and encouraged some advertisers to reconsider X, with a projected 25% increase in ad spending from agencies in February. Since Musk took the company private, figures are mostly estimates or what he reveals. 

X cultivated new advertisers, with 46 of the top 100 U.S. advertisers in January new to the platform since 2022, including brands like Temu, NFL, DraftKings, Amazon, and Dell.

Musk sharply denounced the advertiser exodus, famously telling advertisers to “go f**k yourself” at a 2023 New York Times DealBook Summit and accusing them of blackmail. His rhetoric escalated when he filed a lawsuit, declaring “now it is war” against advertisers.

X’s revenue is recovering  — 16.5%

© Townhall