Twitter Offers Free Adverts To Major Brands – Report

Elon Musk is reportedly seeking to woo big name brand names back to the social-media platform, after an apparent decline in Twitter ad revenues since his takeover.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that Twitter is offering free advertisements to brands that advertise on its platform.

Twitter is reportedly touting free ad space by offering to match advertisers’ ad spending up to $250,000, the report said, citing emails reviewed by the WSJ.

Ad crisis?

It comes after Twitter earlier this month announced that it would relax its total ban on political adverts.

It has been previously reported that Twitter is confronting a revenue crisis, after advertisers including General Motors and Pfizer, paused spending amid fears of a rise in divisive content on the platform, after Musk’s botched relaunch of Twitter’s subscription service.

That said, some advertisers have reportedly reinstated their advertising spend on the platform.

But research firm Pathmatics has noted that about 70 percent of Twitter’s top 100 advertising clients were not spending on the platform as of mid-December.

Advertising of course is Twitter’s main source of revenue, accounting for 90 percent of its $5.1bn turnover in 2021.

In November Musk raised the possibility of the platform going bankrupt during his first mass email with the platform’s remaining staff.

A sign of financial strain at Twitter emerged recently when a landlord in San Francisco sued Twitter over failing to pay rent on its headquarters in the city.

Twitter has also been sued for failing to pay for two charter flights.

Class-action lawsuit

Meanwhile Reuters reported that Twitter won a partial legal victory after a US judge allowed it to force several laid-off workers suing over their termination, to pursue their claims via individual arbitration than a class-action lawsuit, Reuters reported.

US District Judge James Donato on Friday ruled that five former Twitter employees pursuing a proposed class action accusing the company of failing to give adequate notice before laying them off, must pursue their claims in private arbitration.

Judge Donato granted Twitter’s request to force the five ex-employees to pursue their claims individually, citing agreements they signed with the company, Reuters noted.

According to Reuters, the San Francisco judge left for another day “as warranted by developments in the case” whether the entire class action lawsuit must be dismissed, though, as he noted three other former Twitter employees who alleged they had opted out of the company’s arbitration agreement have joined the lawsuit after it was first filed.

The lawyer who represents the plaintiffs, Shannon Liss-Riordan, told Reuters on Monday that she had already filed 300 demands for arbitration on behalf of former Twitter employees and would likely file hundreds more.

Those workers all claim they have not received the full severance package promised by Twitter before Musk took over.

Some have also alleged sex or disability discrimination.

In December last year, Twitter was also accused by dozens of former employees of various legal violations stemming from Musk’s takeover of the company, including targeting women for layoffs and failing to pay promised severance.

Reuters also reported that Twitter is facing at least three complaints filed with a US labour board claiming workers were fired for criticising the company, attempting to organise a strike, and other conduct protected by federal labour law.