General Motors has temporarily stopped paying for advertisements on Twitter after Elon Musk closed the $44 billion deal to take over the website, according to the CNBC. Musk, as you know, is also the chief executive at Tesla, which overtook GM and all its competitors to become the most valuable carmaker in the US a couple of years ago. The company told the news organization that it’s engaging with Twitter to understand its direction under its new owner. Further, it said that it’s normal for the company to pause paid advertising in the face of a “significant change in a media platform.”
GM said in its emailed statement:
“We are engaging with Twitter to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership. As is normal course of business with a significant change in a media platform, we have temporarily paused our paid advertising. Our customer care interactions on Twitter will continue.”
Over the past couple of years, the company had broadened its commitment to providing consumers more EV options in an effort to better compete with Tesla. The automaker announced an investment of $35 billion for its combined EV and self-driving development efforts in 2021. Earlier this year, the company also revealed that it’s building a third Ultium factory in the US that will make batteries for its electric vehicles.
Shortly after he officially took control of Twitter, Musk posted a message to advertisers on his account in a bid to ease their concerns. “There has been much speculation about why I bought Twitter and what I think about advertising. Most of it has been wrong,” he wrote. He also said that advertising, “when done right, can delight, entertain and inform you…” For that to be true, “it is essential to show Twitter users advertising that is as relevant as possible to their needs.”
Here is Musk’s complete statement:
