• X users are complaining about an influx of low-quality ads promoting crypto scams and AI “undressing” apps.
  • The decline in reputable advertisers on X has made the platform more reliant on less reputable ad buyers.
  • The exodus of advertisers, partially due to Elon Musk’s controversial behavior, has left X with a growing revenue gap.

Archive link: https://archive.ph/sbOxS

  • Max_Power@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    Well he told advertisers to fuck off so they did.

    To me as an average Joe it seems pretty dumb to tell your advertisers to fuck off when they provide a big chunk of your income but hey, I’m not a stable genius billionaire so I just don’t get Elon’s 5D chess moves. Right?

  • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m calling it now. Even if his aim was to not destroy Twitter from the inside, he will absolutely say that was his goal when it eventually happens.

    People like this never, pathologically, ever, ever admit making a mistake.

    • CobblerScholar@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      He has too much money to give a shit, he lost more money than anyone has literally ever on this deal and he still has more money than almost anyone who’s ever lived. Only way he stops being like this is if he drops dead from the inevitable overdose he’s queuing up for himself

      • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Eh most of that “money” is actually leveraged Tesla shares. Tesla shares that are overvalued. If he runs Tesla into the ground it’s not actually implausible he goes bankrupt.

        Of course for the billionaires “going bankrupt” isn’t the same as it is for you an me. He’ll still live a life of luxury we can’t even imagine, he just won’t control as much of the economy as he does now. And he can always scam his true believers out of some money by creating a startup promising to to build robot dolphins or whatever (it doesn’t matter he’s a hype man) which he’ll never deliver and idiots will throw money at him.

    • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Even if his aim was to not destroy Twitter from the inside, he will absolutely say that was his goal when it eventually happens.

      Could that open him up to lawsuits from investors?

          • andros_rex@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Larry Ellison (Oracle) were the biggest backers in the buy out deal. Saudi Arabia’s princes want to keep a tight control on information - remember how they butchered Khashoggi? With Qatar it was probably to prevent any slave labor deaths associated with FIFA from going viral. Larry Ellison probably just wanted all that juicy data, idk, he’s quiet but he gives a lot of money to right wing American causes.

        • Mikina@programming.dev
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          1 year ago

          I though Twitter is publicly traded and has stocks? That would mean that he definitely has a duty towards investors who bought the shares to lead the company in a responsible way, and if he claimed that he destroyed it on purpose, it should lead to a lawsuit from them. But I ain’t no lawyer, only vaguely remember hearing something like that. Or does he own 100% of the shares himself and is the sole investor?

          • efstajas@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            It used to be publicly traded, but it went private when he acquired it.

            Which doesn’t mean he doesn’t answer to any investors anymore, of course. He got quite a lot of assistance with that acquisition.

            • Mikina@programming.dev
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              1 year ago

              Oh, I see. I guess that means there’s basically no-one who can sue him, if there aren’t any investors.

              As long as he can repay any loans and stuff, then I suppose he can do whatever he wants with the company. If, however, he bancrupts it to the point of not being able to pay back anything the company owes, then he should be in trouble. I hope.

  • thecrotch@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    “The fact that X has made it abundantly clear that it has no desire to create a brand-safe environment has only solidified our recommendations to move to growing platforms with better opportunities for organic discovery,” he added.

    This is how you say “fuck you too” in corporatespeak

    • DerisionConsulting@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      I would personally go with:

      “Some may say that Mr. Musk was a visionary, and further to the road map laid out by Mr. Musk during the Dealbook Summit, our organization is happy to assist with bringing said business forecast into reality.”

      • Past tense on visionary
      • brings up him telling companies to “fuck off”
      • rubs it in that his financial people have clearly told him that this is how Xitter goes belly-up, and that when he tries to fix it, he just makes it worse.
  • gullible@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    You advertise to your audience. Ads targeting the perverse and the stupid seem perfectly suited to twitter.

  • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    404 Media report[ed] last month that ads promoting “semen stealing” were showing up on the site.

    Wait what now

  • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    I’m starting to think that telling your customers to “go fuck themselves” may not be a sound business decision.

  • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    AI undressing apps you say? AI’s about to make that video of Elon telling advertisers to fuck off a lot more surprising.

    • nymwit@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      “Oh, my God, that’s disgusting! Software that makes naked pics online? Where? Where did they post those?”

  • GlendatheGayWitch@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    We learned in D.A.R.E. that X is bad for you. Seems like X in its digital form is also bad for you and for its dealer.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Nope. I’m calling it Twitter. If he says it’s okay to deadname trans people on his platform, I’m going to deadname his platform.

    • saintshenanigans@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      I find it particularly funny to call it X(formerly twitter) every time I have to mention it.

      Also kind of love how Dubious X is as a name cause I always think it’s a porn site before my brain clicks

      • wikibot@lemmy.worldB
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        1 year ago

        Here’s the summary for the wikipedia article you mentioned in your comment:

        The Organization X (Greek: Οργάνωσις Χ; commonly referred to simply as X (“Chi” in Greek), and members as Chites (Χίτες)) was a paramilitary right-wing anti-communist royalist organization set up in 1941 during the Axis occupation of Greece. Initially an anti-Axis resistance organization, it gradually shifted its focus towards anti-communism. In 1951, X was officially recognized as a National Organization of Internal Resistance by the Greek Ministry of National Defense. Following the end of the Axis occupation, it played an active role in the persecution of communists during the White Terror and various military operations of the Greek Civil War, most notably the Dekemvriana.

        to opt out, pm me ‘optout’. article | about

  • arc@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I still use Twitter but I have no idea what the quality of ads is like since they’re long blocked. I could well imagine that there is some absolute bottom of the barrel garbage and scams a plenty.

  • Holzkohlen@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    And it’s only a matter of time until those AI undressing app get banned by law. Good.

    • ripcord@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Hadn’t heard that, do you have a source?

      I’d be pretty surprised if most didn’t start their ad buys again. Even if it’s lower volume (and at discounts). As soon as everyone stops focusing on these things (after a month or whatever) things tend to go back to business as usual.

      The article indicates they haven’t yet, though.

    • Snapz@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Wish I could cancel our Netflix subscription for a second time, but fortunately/unfortunately we stopped giving them money when they announced they would fuck around with accounts shared within a family. Eat shit, Netflix