Twitter’s recent reinstatement of banned users, including neo-Nazis, white supremacists, misogynists and conspiracy theorists, is proving to be a profitable move for the social media giant, according to new research by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a non-profit organization focused on curbing these speeches on networks. The study shows that just ten of these reinstated accounts will generate up to $19 million in annual advertising revenue for Twitter. The accounts were among hundreds believed to have been reinstated under a “General Amnesty” announced by Musk in late November.
The ten reinstated accounts selected for analysis by the Center were chosen to showcase the various types of problematic content now being supported by Twitter’s advertisers. They include former kickboxer Andrew Tate, known for posting extreme misogynistic videos, and influencer Robert Malone, who has built a following by spreading falsehoods about COVID-19 vaccines. Also among the reinstated accounts is neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin, who founded the Daily Stormer website, and Gateway Pundit, an online media outlet known for promoting disinformation, as per the report.
Despite the clear promotion of hateful content, these ten accounts have already amassed 2.5 billion tweet impressions, putting them on track to reach 20 billion impressions over the course of a year.
The data shows that, on average, tweets from these accounts receive 54 million daily views, with annual estimated views reaching 19.7 billion and estimated annual ad revenue of $19 million. The most viewed account, Andrew Tate, is expected to bring in $12.3 million in annual ad revenue, while the least viewed, Rizza Islam, is still expected to generate $49,314.
CCDH calculated the advertising value of the 10 influencers by taking publicly available information about their tweet impressions and multiplying the result by the cost per 1,000 impressions, which is $6.46 according to social media analytics firm, Brandwatch.
Our research shows that there is a depressingly trite answer to why Elon Musk reinstates the accounts of self-proclaimed Nazis, agents of disinformation, misogynists and homophobes — it is highly profitable.”Imran Ahmed, Chief Executive of the CCDH
The CCDH found that major national brands, including Amazon, Apple TV, the NFL, and Fiverr, placed advertisements next to content from the 10 extremist influencers. For example, an advertisement for Wendy’s appeared next to a tweet from Stew Peters, an anti-vaccine influencer with 168,000 followers, who referred to the vaccine as a “BioWeapon” and claimed it had led to murder. Another ad for the streaming service Peacock appeared next to a tweet from Anthime Gionet, an influencer known as Baked Alaska, who was recently sentenced for his role in the U.S. Capitol Riot on January 6, 2021.
These juxtapositions have contributed to a drop in Twitter’s advertising revenue, with the platform experiencing a 70% decrease from the previous year, according to data from Standard Media Index. Twitter’s advertising products are also seen as less sophisticated than those offered by Facebook or YouTube. Brendan Gahan, chief innovation officer at Mekanism, an advertising agency, noted that “He’s [Elon Musk] created an atmosphere that makes Twitter feel very unsafe for brands.”
After the publication of the CCDH report, Fiverr announced it was halting all advertising on Twitter. The 10 influencers considered in the survey are Andrew Tate, Robert Malone, Andrew Anglin, Emerald Robinson, Rogan O’Handley, Peter McCullough, Stew Peters, Anthime Gionet, Rizza Islam, and Gateway Pundit. All had their accounts removed from Twitter for violating rules before being restored by Musk.
Researchers used the social media web-scraping tool SNScrape to gather tweets from ten reinstated Twitter accounts and calculated the daily impressions for each account. The data collection spanned from December 15, 2022, to January 30, 2023. The average cost per 1,000 impressions on Twitter was calculated to be $6.46 according to the social media analytics firm Brandwatch. The revenue calculations are based on the assumption that one ad is served up by Twitter for every 6.7 tweet impressions, which was determined through a simulation conducted by the Center. The results of the simulation, including screen recordings, can be found at this link. It should be noted that this is a simplified characterization of how people view tweets on Twitter and that ads may also be served in other contexts, such as the search function, individual profiles, or directly.
Twitter’s Last-Minute Appeal to Advertisers Ahead of the Super Bowl
Twitter is leveraging its most important night of the year to help it win back the long list of advertisers that ditched the social-media platform after Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover of the company, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The San Francisco-based company has been ramping up its Super Bowl pitch to advertisers, offering a last-minute deal on one of its most high-profile, big-game ad packages, according to an email viewed by The Wall Street Journal. It is also telling advertisers that the number of conversations on its platform about the Super Bowl and the National Football League is up significantly from a year earlier, according to other emails sent to advertisers and ad agencies.
Super Bowl: A High-Stakes Game for Twitter
Twitter’s credibility as a Super Bowl advertising platform has grown over the years, in part because of a tweet made by Oreo during Super Bowl XLVII in 2013. During a 30-minute power outage, Oreo tweeted “Power out? No problem” with a picture of a cookie and the line “You can still dunk in the dark”. The tweet received more than 13,000 retweets and free publicity for the cookie brand, helping cement Twitter’s role in Super Bowl marketing efforts.
Advertisers leverage social media platforms such as Twitter before, during, and after the Super Bowl to generate buzz and get more out of the millions of dollars spent on TV commercials. Ad time during Fox’s broadcast of the game has sold for as much as $7 million this year, with brands often sharing snippets of their commercials on Twitter leading up to the game. Companies engage with audiences in real-time during the game, responding to tweets about the commercials and the game.
Twitter’s Relevance During the Super Bowl
Jeff Goodby, co-chairman of Goodby Silverstein & Partners, has noted that Twitter “is not a must-buy for most of the year, but when it gets to Super Bowl time, it’s suddenly of great interest” to advertisers. Kia, DraftKings Inc. and Flutter Entertainment PLC’s FanDuel Group, among other advertisers, plan to run ads on Twitter as part of their Super Bowl ad campaigns. Mike Raffensperger, FanDuel’s chief commercial officer, has called Twitter “intrinsic to the experience” and noted that people flock to the platform to see what others are talking about during the game.
In previous years, several big advertisers have sent delegations to Twitter’s office in New York on Super Bowl Sunday to monitor and react to conversations happening on the platform. The Super Bowl is a high-stakes game for Twitter, as it offers a chance to win back advertisers that have left the platform and demonstrate its continued relevance to the advertising community. Whether Twitter will succeed in its last-minute appeal remains to be seen.
