The former world’s richest man, Elon Musk, who owns X, formerly known as Twitter, is extending a plea to advertisers, urging them to return to the platform despite recent controversies.

The company made this known in a letter addressed to both current and former advertisers, CEO Linda Yaccarino emphasized X’s commitment to prioritizing child safety online.

This appeal comes at a time when owner Elon Musk dismissed concerns from advertisers regarding the platform.

Yaccarino, following her participation in a congressional hearing on online safety, expressed X’s support for proposed online safety bills put forth by US lawmakers.

The message aims to set X apart from other social networks whose leaders are adopting a more cautious stance toward impending regulations according to Bloomberg who first reported the news.

Despite claiming to be an entirely new entity from its predecessor Twitter, X has encountered challenges in curbing the spread of harmful and offensive content on its platform.

Recent instances, such as the struggle to manage disturbing images related to the Israel-Hamas conflict and blocking searches for Taylor Swift’s name due to deepfake content, have pushed forward these difficulties.

Amidst the fallout from Elon Musk’s confrontational response to advertisers in November, X, formerly known as Twitter, is now witnessing efforts led by CEO Linda Yaccarino to mend relationships and entice advertisers back to the platform.

The CEO’s strategic move involves positioning X as a platform dedicated to ensuring the online safety of children, aligning its stance with proposed legislative measures.

Walmart, the largest retailer in the United States, notably distanced itself from X, becoming the first major company to halt advertising on the platform due to Musk’s controversial remarks. This decision by Walmart signifies a pivotal moment as it marks a significant departure from X following Musk’s recent string of disparaging comments.

Other notable companies, including Disney, IBM, and Sony, have also opted to withdraw their advertising from X, contributing to the platform’s challenges in retaining commercial partnerships.

In the aftermath of these controversies and advertiser withdrawals, X is acutely aware of the pivotal role advertising plays in its revenue stream.

Yaccarino’s outreach efforts are a strategic move aimed at reshaping X’s image and rebuilding trust with commercial partners, recognizing the vital importance of advertisers for the platform’s financial sustainability.

As X navigates these challenges, the overarching theme is a concerted effort to reposition itself, emphasizing commitments to child safety online and aligning with legislative measures.

The outcome of these endeavors will determine X’s trajectory as it seeks to regain confidence, rebuild relationships, and secure the continued support of crucial advertising partners.

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TECHDIGEST – Social media app TweetDeck began going behind a paywall on Tuesday, with users of platform X, formerly known as Twitter, being diverted to a paid-subscription sign-up page when they tried to access it.

X announced in July that TweetDeck, a popular programme that allows users to monitor multiple accounts and lists of users at once, would be available only to “verified” account holders from August.

On Tuesday, users attempting to access the service, now rebranded as X Pro, were required to pay for X’s blue checkmark verification for an annual fee of $84.

The social media firm, bought by billionaire Elon Musk last year, has been thrashing around for ways to make a profit, cutting staff and ramping up its paid-for subscriptions.

Last week, CEO Linda Yaccarino said that the company was “close” to breaking even and would beef up staffing that had been slashed by Musk.

X’s verified users are mostly those who have paid to receive the blue checkmark, though Musk has gifted the verification symbol to some.

TweetDeck, launched more than a decade ago, shows messages in columns and its search and posting functions operate differently to the website or the app.

Twitter bought London-based TweetDeck in 2011, with technology media putting the price tag at $40 million at the time.

AFP

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TECHDIGEST – Twitter’s owner Elon Musk and its new CEO said Sunday that the social media network would ditch its bird logo, be rebranded with the name X and move quickly into payments, banking and commerce.

Founded in 2006, Twitter takes its name from the sound of birds chattering, and it has used avian branding since its early days, when the company bought a stock symbol of a light blue bird for $15, according to the design website Creative Bloq.

Tweeting a picture of the company’s new logo — a white X on a black background — late Sunday night, Twitter chief executive Linda Yaccarino said “X is here! Let’s do this.”

Also late Sunday night, Musk changed his profile picture to the company’s new logo, which he described as “minimalist art deco,” and changed his Twitter bio to “X.com,” which now redirects to twitter.com.

READ ALSO: Twitter Limits Daily Direct Messages for Unverified Users

Musk had earlier tweeted that “If a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make it go live worldwide tomorrow.”

Musk also tweeted that under the site’s new identity, a post would be called “an X.”

The changes were not visible on the website as of 0630 GMT Monday.

Musk had already named Twitter’s parent company the X Corporation, and previously said his takeover of the social media giant was “an accelerant to creating X, the everything app” — a reference to the X.com company he founded in 1999, a later version of which went on to become payments giant PayPal.

Such an app could still function as a social media platform, and also include messaging and mobile payments.

“Powered by AI, X will connect us in ways we’re just beginning to imagine,” Yaccarino tweeted earlier on Sunday.

Yaccarino, an advertising sales executive at NBCUniversal who Musk poached last month to become Twitter’s CEO, said the social media platform was on the cusp of broadening its scope.

“X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities,” Yaccarino tweeted.

Since Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion last October, the platform’s advertising business has partially collapsed as marketers soured on mass firings at the company that gutted content moderation — as well as on Musk’s management style.

In response, the billionaire SpaceX boss has moved toward introducing payments and commerce through the platform in a search for new revenue.

Twitter is thought to have around 200 million daily active users, but it has suffered repeated technical failures since the 52-year-old Tesla founder bought the app and sacked much of its staff.

Since then, many users and advertisers alike have responded adversely to the social media site’s new charges for previously free services, its changes to content moderation and the return of previously banned right-wing accounts.

Musk said this month that Twitter had lost roughly half of its advertising revenue since he took control in October.

Facebook parent Meta also this month launched its own text-based platform, called Threads, which has up to 150 million users, according to some estimates.

But the amount of time users spend on the rival app has plummeted in the weeks since its launch, according to data from market analysis firm Sensor Tower.

AFP

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