Twitter is due to roll out new controls next week, letting companies prevent their ads from appearing above or below tweets containing certain keywords.

Twitter is due to roll out new controls next week, letting companies prevent their ads from appearing above or below tweets containing certain keywords. In an email to advertisers, Twitter’s management is making an effort to reassure advertisers and lure them back to the platform after many pulled their ads. The bulk of Twitter’s revenue (90%) comes from advertising. After Elon Musk took over Twitter, companies started pulling their advertising after a rise in hate speech and offensive content. Companies who paused or suspended advertising include General Mills, Mondelez, General Motors, Stellantis, Audi, United Airlines and Pfizer. 

According to Reuters, in a call on Thursday with an advertising industry group, a Twitter representative said that the platform was considering bringing its content moderators in-house. Many of the current content moderators are contracted through third-party vendors. Twitter’s new head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, told Reuters that Twitter would lean more heavily on automated content moderation, adding that Twitter's recent layoffs, which cut 50% of staff, did not significantly hurt its moderation team and those working on critical areas like child safety. 

Twitter has also told advertisers it removed ads from profiles that a Washington Post article mentioned last week, reporting that ads appeared on the Twitter accounts of white nationalists. Snap Inc paused advertising on Twitter whilst it investigates the issues. According to Twitter, the accounts were not part of “amnesty reinstatements”. Amnesty reinstatements are accounts that could be reinstated provided they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam. Musk proposed the idea on a Twitter poll, a common feature of his management so far. He did the same thing last month asking the question of whether former US President Donald Trump should be reinstated. Trump was banned from Twitter after inciting violence.

Kanye West was also reinstated and then suspended again from Twitter after tweeting an image of a swastika blended with the star of David. His account was previously suspended for spreading antisemitic hate speech. Musk tweeted that he tried his best, but West again “violated our rule against incitement of violence” and therefore his account will be suspended. West is no longer buying right-wing social media platform Parler, which Parler said was in the “interest of both parties.” 

Another new change is to the price of the Twitter Blue subscription service which allows accounts to receive a “verified” check mark. The subscription price will be $7 a month on the web but now $11 a month on Apple devices. 

Investigations and Lawsuits

No short of controversy since Musk took over, Twitter is now under investigation by city officials in San Francisco following a complaint that the company allegedly converted rooms in its HQ to sleeping quarters. BBC reporter James Clayton tweeted:

“NEW: The BBC has obtained pictures of inside Twitter - rooms that have been converted into bedrooms - for staff to sleep in. The city of San Francisco is investigating as it's a commercial building.”

The tweet had pictures accompanying it showing bedrooms, a wardrobe, slippers, sofas converted into beds and a washing machine. The city’s Department of Building Inspections is investigating potential violation of the building code. Musk tweeted in response that the city “attacks companies providing beds for tired employees instead of making sure kids are safe from fentanyl.” Twitter’s director of project management, Esther Crawford, tweeted a photo of herself sleeping in the office with an eye mask and sleeping bag last month, captioned “When your team is pushing round the clock to make deadlines sometimes you #SleepWhereYouWork.”

Another problem for Musk and Twitter is a new lawsuit. Two women who lost their jobs at Twitter during mass layoffs when Musk took over are suing with the claim that the company disproportionately targeted female employees for cuts. The discrimination lawsuit is the latest in a series of lawsuits facing Twitter since Musk took over and laid off approximately 3,700 members of its workforce. Filed in a San Francisco federal court, the suit states that Twitter laid off 57% of its female workers compared with 47% of men. The gender disparity was even more disproportionate for engineering roles; 63% of women lost their  job compared to 48% of men. The lawsuit accuses Twitter of violating federal and California laws banning workplace sex discrimination. The lawyer for the plaintiffs, Shannon Liss-Riordan, said that women had “targets on their backs” once Musk took over, regardless of their talent or contributions. 

At a press conference, she said, “It’s not a huge surprise unfortunately that women were hit so hard by these layoffs when Elon Musk was overseeing these incredibly ad hoc layoffs just in a matter of days.” Liss-Riordan represents current and former Twitter employees in three other pending lawsuits filed against the company in the same court. The cases include claims that Twitter laid off employees and contractors without the advance notice required by law and failed to pay promised severance, and that Musk forced out workers with disabilities by refusing to allow remote work and calling on employees to be more “hardcore”.

At least three workers have filed separate complaints with the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) claiming they faced retaliation for advocating for better working conditions. Liss-Riordan said she had also filed a complaint with the NLRB on behalf of employees who were protesting Musk’s new policies, including the abrupt return to office full time policy which has since been relaxed. Twitter denies any wrongdoing in the lawsuit involving advance notice but has not yet responded to the other complaints.

(Sources: Reuters, Twitter, The Guardian)