• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, November 8, 2022

Early returns indicate that Musk's control over Twitter, with seemingly dramatic changes for the service, are not doing anything to foster that business gain.

Twitter, Meta, and Snap have already seen a sharp drop in advertising -- due to unrelated worries about the economy and a possible coming recession.

For his part, Musk has said the company has seen a "massive drop" in revenue.

He blames civil rights organizations and other advocacy groups for scaring off advertisers as he moves fast to make major changes -- including allowing bad actors to get back on the service, all in the name of “free speech” -- regardless of whether those users have a long-time track record of spreading consistent, proven disinformation.

This includes long-time Twitter user former President Trump.

Big brand advertisers can be very touchy about the slightest possible negative aura around media platforms. They have many places to turn to -- even with declining live, linear TV consumption.

And yet, one area that linear TV has been resilient around is live programming -- sports and news in particular.

Can social media troubles with advertisers be a benefit for traditional, legacy TV networks such as Fox News Channel, MSNBC, and CNN?

Right now, with the midterm elections taking place -- and with strong interest in a dramatic political environment with a lot of entropy -- one would guess the next two years leading into the 2024 Presidential election will only amp up viewers and political interests on TV.

For sure some of this will have some benefit for digital media platforms. But with Apple allowing now iPhone users to opt out of identity tracking, all that might swing more advertising interest back around legacy TV -- not just national TV networks, but perhaps local TV stations with a lot of news content on their airwaves.

Musk has pulled back  -- somewhat -- saying that this won't be a "free-for-all hellscape."

Promises, promises.

Still, for Musk, weak market conditions are no time for any strong-arm effort to push marketers into questionable content.

Total and complete free speech doesn’t come free. A big cost to pay could be on the horizon.