Musk admits Twitter’s ad revenues have halved and says advertisers are trying to bankrupt the company

Elon Musk has admitted that Twitter’s ad revenues had halved “overnight” and blamed advertisers in the US for “trying to drive Twitter out of business” over its stance on free speech.

His comments came hours after one report in The New York Times claimed that Twitter’s US ad revenue for the five weeks from April 1 to the first week of May was down 59 percent, about $125 million, compared to last year.

Twitter’s financial troubles will be a focus for new CEO Linda Yaccarino, who was publicly announced by Musk last month and whose first day of business was brought forward by two weeks to Monday.

Yaccarino is the former head of advertising at NBCUniversal and will “focus primarily on business,” Musk said at the time, suggesting her main job will be to lure advertisers back after his turbulent reign.

Ads are a critical source of revenue for Twitter, and by 2021, they made up more than 90 percent of total revenue.

Musk’s comments came on Monday, the first day for new CEO Linda Yaccarino, who has been hired to lure advertisers back to Twitter

The report in the Times on Monday suggested that the company has internally forecast revenues to fall by at least 56 percent each week this month compared to last year.

“The public doesn’t realize the magnitude of the pressure, extreme financial pressure, that advertisers are putting on organizations to keep up,” Musk said at a Twitter Spaces meeting with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday.

Kennedy Jr., the son of the late Robert F. Kennedy, recently entered the presidential race as a Republican nominee and described Musk as a “hero” of free speech.

Despite being an underdog, he was endorsed on Sunday by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who also predicted he would win the Republican nomination.

Musk has been encouraging presidential candidates to engage with the public on Twitter in recent weeks after Ron DeSantis used it to launch his own presidential bid.

“Twitter has faced extreme pressure from advertisers and has op seen an ad boycott of many companies at least in the West,” Musk said during the call Monday and in response to comments about advertising from Kennedy Jr.

“I think this is a fundamental corruption of democracy. And the public should be absolutely outraged by this,” he continued.

During a “Twitter Spaces” meeting with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday, Musk said that “the public is unaware of the magnitude of the pressure, extreme financial pressure, being placed on organizations to give in by advertisers”

Robert F Kennedy Jr. recently entered the presidential race as a Republican nominee and Monday described Musk as a “hero” of free speech. He is pictured on June 5

Musk, however, expressed his gratitude to companies that remained loyal to the platform despite the controversial freedom of speech, which Twitter’s ad salespeople told the Times led to an increase in pornography and hate speech.

“I definitely want to thank the companies that have stayed with us like Apple and Disney and many others, but for North America and Europe we’ve seen about half of our ads disappear overnight simply because we push for freedom of speech,” he said.

On Sunday, Yaccarino welcomed fellow former NBCUniversal contributor Joe Benarroch to the team, writing, “Welcome to the fold, @benarroch_joe! From one bird to another. Let’s get started!’

Benarroch was senior vice president of communications, advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal and worked at Meta. At Twitter, he will focus on business operations.