Musk hates advertising, but that doesn't mean he doesn't need it.
If Musk doesn't close the deal by Friday, he'll have to go to trial in Delaware. According to reports, Musk has secured his financing and toured the company's offices yesterday.
He didn't address advertisers until Thursday. Musk promised advertising clients that he actually wants their ad dollars and that he won't become a "free-for-all hellscape".
The world's richest man is in a difficult spot because of his disdain for advertising and moderation.
The current approach to content moderation will be scaled back by Musk. Donald Trump found out that the company prohibits hate speech, political misinformation, and uses the platform to encourage violence. Musk hasn't weighed in on specific content policies, but he's suggested a rollback of moderation in general, and suggested that Trump should return to the social networking site.
The recent emphasis on brand safety by the advertising industry is counter to this. Advertisers are boycotting Facebook and YouTube because they think they haven't done enough to keep hate speech off of their platforms.
Musk spoke to advertisers about his thoughts.
The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide variety of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence. That said, Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!
The closest approximation to Musk's real content moderation stance is this. He realized that he needs moderation to keep advertisers happy and that he needs advertisers to make money. There is a limit to how much Musk can lose.
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