Elon Musk says activist groups are ‘trying to destroy free speech in America’ after Twitter saw a ‘massive drop in revenue’

On April 25, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced he was buying Twitter for $44 billion as part of his effort to defend free speech. Musk, who calls himself a free-speech absolutist, said his interest in Twitter grew from his desire to protect free speech.

In a statement from Twitter marking the sale, Musk said, “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”

Musk has criticized the social giant’s rules against misinformation and the power of special interest on the platform. Just a day after the acquisition announcement, Musk tweeted, “I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law.”

Fast forward a few months after the announcement of Musk taking over the company, Twitter has seen a massive drop in revenue. Musk blamed the revenue drop on activist groups pressuring advertisers to abandon the platform.

In a tweet a moment ago, Musk wrote:

“Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists. Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.”

Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists.

Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022

To keep the company afloat, Musk recently announced the layoff of half of its 7,500 workers to slash costs at the social media platform he acquired for $44 billion last month.

“In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday,” Twitter management said in an email reviewed by Bloomberg. “We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s success going forward.”

Early this week, Musk also introduced the $8 per month blue checkmark on Twitter for everyone as part of the company’s effort to broaden its revenue stries. In a series of tweets, Musk said: “Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.”

Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit.

Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022