Top Ad Firm Suggests ‘Pause’ on Twitter Ads Amid Musk Takeover

Interpublic Group, also known as IPG, one of the world’s top advertising firms, has advised a pause on Twitter ads, in an early signal of the corporate blacklisting Elon Musk is likely to face if he restores free speech on the platform.

IPG’s clients include some of the world’s biggest companies, including Coca Cola, Johnson & Johnson, American Express, Mattel, and Levi Strauss.

In an email to clients, IPG warned that “the current situation [at Twitter] is unpredictable and chaotic, and bad actors and unsafe behaviors thrive in such an environment.”

Twitter, said IPG, “has been silent in any direct comms with marketers and agencies.”

The warning shot comes shortly after Twitter’s head of ad sales, Sarah Personnette, resigned from the company.

In what may be perceived as a parting shot at Musk’s free speech plans, Personette said “the most important role I believe I played in the company was championing the requirements of brand safety,” although she added that she believed the new administration would adhere to the brand safety standards laid down by advertisers.

Brand safety is the term most often used by advertisers when boycotting a website or platform over controversial content.

Advertiser boycotts have regularly been whipped up by the media to force more censorship on Silicon Valley, with notable examples including the Facebook ad boycott of 2020, and the YouTube “adpocalypse” of 2017.

Advertisers, like many other elements of the corporate elite, began to mobilize in favor of censorship shortly after the election of Donald Trump in 2016.  Less than two months after Trump’s win, the New York Times began pressuring advertisers into cracking down on ads appearing on “fake news” websites, a buzzword used at the time to refer to virtually all conservative media.

In her parting tweets, Personette said she believed Twitter would continue to uphold “GARM,” a reference to the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, a forum of advertisers, media agencies, industry associations, and social media platforms (Twitter is still listed as a member).

A “flagship product” of Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum, GARM is upfront on its website about its number-one priority: more censorship, achieved through collective corporate pressure.

“To get the digital media ecosystem working together on the shared priorities that will lead to the removal of harmful content from advertiser-supported social media.”

If Musk is serious about restoring freedom of speech on Twitter, it’s hard to see how that can be reconciled with upholding “GARM.”

Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.