While Elon Musk claims that “almost all advertisers have come back to Twitter,” some still don’t want anything to do with the company’s CEO.

The New York Times, citing four people familiar with Twitter’s advertising situation, reported that certain brands that have returned to advertising on the platform are using Twitter’s adjacency controls to keep their content clear of increasingly troubling content — including Musk’s own tweets.

Jason Kint, chief executive of Digital Content Next, told the Times that Twitter is “unpredictable and chaotic” adding that, “Advertisers want to run in an environment where they are comfortable and can send a signal about their brand.”

Announced in December 2022, just a few months after Musk took control of the company, adjacency controls aimed to enable advertisers to prevent their ads from appearing adjacent to Tweets that use keywords they’d like to avoid.

“Empowering brands to customize their campaigns to prevent their ads from appearing adjacent to unsuitable content is an important step towards increased ad relevance on Twitter,” said an undated December blog post written by Engineering Lead Nina Chen and Head of Brand Safety AJ Brown.

Both Chen and Brown are no longer with the company. Neither immediately responded to Insider’s request for comment.

Insider previously reported that Brown attempted to counter the growing perception that Twitter wasn’t safe for brands with a later blog post about the company’s partnerships with adtech companies DoubleVerify and IAS, which were meant to help with brand safety. 

One individual at the company who seems unconcerned with brand safety is Musk himself.

He has deployed an array of bizarre tweets, from antisemitic conspiracy theories to anti-transgender content and anti-vaccine misinformation.

—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2023

Citing a series of Musk tweets about financier George Soros, Ted Deutch, the chief executive of the American Jewish Committee, told the Times that “the lie Jews want to destroy civilization has led to the persecution of Jewish people for centuries.”

He added, “Musk should know better.”

Twitter responded to Insider’s request for comment with a poop emoji. 

Snapchat has reported another growth milestone, with the app now reaching 15 million monthly active users in Germany.

The ephemeral messaging app, which reached 750 million total monthly actives in February, continues to steadily expand its global footprint, with EU users now making up around 25% of its total audience. The majority of Snapchatters now actually come from India, which reached 200 million monthly actives last month, while North America makes up around 190 million of its global audience.

Snapchat has been working to build its European audience, with the company also reporting 21 million monthly active users in the UK two weeks back. It’s not expanding in the region as fast as it is in India, which is rapidly rising with the rate of mobile adoption, but Snapchat is still growing, despite being a relatively smaller player in the global social media market.

At one stage, it seemed that Snap would be killed off entirely, after Instagram stole its mojo by copying Stories back in 2016. That led to a significant drop-off in Snap usage, but since then, the app has continued to double-down on its niche of being a more private connective app for friends, which has helped it maintain and maximize its growth momentum.

And now it’s firming its footing in Europe, while Snap has also shared some trend notes on German app usage.

• Although we are loved by Generation Z, almost 40% of Snapchatters in Germany are 25 years or older
• In Germany, Snapchatters open the app an average of 30 times per day – to chat with friends and family, watch highlights of their favorite shows, or share moments from their lives
• 75% use our augmented reality lenses daily to express themselves creatively, have fun, and even try on and buy clothes.

Most of these are fairly universal Snap trend notes, though it is interesting to note the aging user group, as Snap continues to investigate more ways to maintain relevance as its audience ages up.

That’s a key challenge, because while Snap is a valuable connector for teens, it hasn’t, historically, held the same appeal for older users, who end up focusing more of their time in other apps instead.

If Snap can capitalize on this element, that could be a valuable growth path, as it continues to expand its global network.

A bill making its way through the California state legislature would mandate that internet giants pay news agencies monthly ‘journalism usage fees’ based on viewing of stories via their platforms – Copyright AFP SEBASTIEN BOZON

Glenn CHAPMAN

A proposed law requiring internet giants to pay for news stories moved forward in California on Friday, despite Facebook owner Meta threatening to pull news from its platform if it passes.

The California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA), which cleared the state assembly on Thursday and was in the hands of the state senate, would mandate that large online platforms pay a monthly “journalism usage fee” to news providers whose work appears on their services.

The bill is designed to support local news organizations, which have been decimated in recent years as ad revenue bled away to Google and Facebook, both advertising behemoths.

Meta spokesman Andy Stone on Friday told AFP that if the bill becomes law, Meta “will be forced to remove news from Facebook and Instagram rather than pay into a slush fund that primarily benefits big, out-of-state media companies.”

The bill has to make its way through the state senate and be signed by Governor Gavin Newsom to become law.

The CJPA is like other legislative texts pending across the globe.

In Australia, Facebook in 2021 briefly blocked news articles over a similar law and Google threatened to pull its search engine from the country before they made deals to pay several media groups.

In the European Union, tech giants can be asked to pay a copyright fee to publishers for links posted in search results or feeds.

“The CJPA is riddled with holes, the biggest of which is that the bill primarily funds national media outlets that spread misinformation,” said Chamber of Progress chief executive Adam Kovacevich.

“It’s sad the Assembly is passing the buck to the Senate rather than fixing the bill’s problems.”

The chamber is a trade group with a list of partners that includes Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta.

A study posted by the chamber concluded that “disinformation outlets” including Fox News would benefit most from the California law.

The bill defines online platforms as those having at least 50 million monthly active users in the United States; a billion monthly users worldwide, or be valued at more than $550 billion based on its stock price.

– Money for reporters? –

Fees paid would be based on the number of views and news providers would be required to spend it on journalism and support staff, according to the text of the bill.

Stone noted that the wording of the bill means revenue from the law would not have to be spent on reporters covering news.

The California state assembly website indicated the bill was sent to a senate committee responsible for scheduling debates and votes on legislation, with no indication of when it would go to a vote.

“Meta’s threat to take down news is undemocratic and unbecoming,” trade group News Media Alliance said in a posted statement.

“We have seen this in their playbook before.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last month slammed Meta after executives said it would block news for Canadian Facebook and Instagram users in response to the proposed law there.

The Canada law builds on Australia’s New Media Bargaining Code, which was a world first, aimed at making Google and Meta pay for news content on their platforms.