Mondelez International Inc CEO Dirk Van de Put said in a November 8 Reuters Newsmaker interview that the Oreo cookies manufacturer has pulled its ads off Twitter after Tesla CEO Elon Musk acquired the social media platform.
Van de Put said:
“What we’ve seen recently since the change on Twitter has been announced, is the amount of hate speech increased significantly. We felt there is a risk our advertising would appear next to the wrong messages. As a consequence, we have decided to take a pause and a break until that risk is as low as possible.”
In the past week, Twitter laid off half of its workforce as advertisers pulled off spending amid fears about content moderation. General Mills Inc, Automakers, and United Airlines Holdings Inc are among the many companies halting their ads.
Twitter, which has lost a lot of members of its communications team, did not instantly respond to a request for comment.
Van de Put said that Mondelez, which makes Milka and Cadbury chocolates, is now expecting a strong holiday season. The consumers in Europe, Mondelez’s biggest market, is currently what is worrying him most, he said.
