Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, Jul 23, 2025

Elon Musk tells Twitter advertisers he wants to stop fake accounts, pursue truth

Elon Musk tells Twitter advertisers he wants to stop fake accounts, pursue truth

Twitter's new owner Elon Musk told advertisers on Wednesday he aimed to turn the social media platform into a force for truth and stop fake accounts in an effort to assuage brands and advertising agencies that have increasingly been backing away.
Days after Twitter rattled users and advertisers by cutting half its staff, over 100,000 listeners tuned in to hear Musk speak on Twitter's Spaces feature. He was joined by Yoel Roth, Twitter's head of safety and integrity, who has reassured users that Twitter would uphold its policies against harmful content.

Musk, the world's richest man, spoke calmly about his vision for Twitter, touting an $8 charge for premium subscriptions as a bot remedy and musing about the possibility of someday offering money market accounts.

In the week since Musk took over, GM, General Mills and Mondelez International Inc (MDLZ.O) have pulled ads off Twitter, concerned Musk could loosen content moderation rules. Major brands including Wendy's Co(WEN.O), Chick-fil-A, General Motors Co (GM.N) and Ford Motor Co (F.N) monitored Musk's talk on Wednesday.

Musk blamed Twitter's "massive drop in revenue" on a coalition of civil rights groups that has ramped up pressure on advertisers, demanding they suspend ads globally after he laid off roughly half of the staff.

Directly addressing brands who have paused their ads, Musk said: "I understand if people want to give it a minute." But he added that "the best way to see how things are evolving is just use Twitter."

He said paid Twitter Blue subscription accounts with a blue checkmark would become more important and prominent, with users focusing on posts from verified users and ignoring other low quality content. The paid service would also discourage spammers, who would not want to pay for it, he added.

"There's a big difference between freedom of speech and freedom of reach," Musk said, adding that Twitter would aim to limit the visibility of hateful content.

Musk also responded to a question about his own tweets which have upset some advertisers, including one, now-deleted, that linked to a conspiracy theory about the attack on U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, as well as a tweet that urged voters to choose Republican candidates in the U.S. midterm elections.

"Twitter must be as a platform as neutral as possible. That doesn't mean I'm completely neutral," he said.

Roth tweeted Wednesday that Twitter has reduced views of harmful content in search results by 95% compared to before Musk's acquisition.

"My observation of Twitter over the past few weeks is that the content is actually improving, not getting worse," Musk said. He told advertisers Twitter would move aggressively to suspend accounts that "engaged in trickery" or deception.

He also promised a faster evolution of the Twitter service, opening the possibility of allowing peer-to-peer payments, money market accounts and eventually a debit card.

Musk has already moved quickly to make changes in the Twitter app, creating some confusion. Musk said in a tweet on Wednesday that he "killed" a new "official" label for Twitter accounts, on the same day that it began rolling out.

A Twitter executive later clarifiedthat the platform would not give the official label to individuals, but it would still roll it out for government and commercial entities.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Google Secures Windsurf AI Coding Team in $2.4 Billion Licence Deal
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
South African Police Minister Suspended Amid Organised Crime Allegations
Nvidia CEO Claims Chinese Military Reluctance to Use US AI Technology
Hong Kong Advances Digital Asset Strategy to Address Economic Challenges
Australia Rules Out Pre‑commitment of Troops, Reinforces Defence Posture Amid US‑China Tensions
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
U.S. Resumes Deportations to Third Countries After Supreme Court Ruling
Excavation Begins at Site of Mass Grave for Children at Former Irish Institution
×