Balenciaga quits Twitter: Elon Musk loses another brand on the social media platform, while General Motors, Volkswagen, Pfizer and General Mills have paused advertising with the billionaire’s giant

Nov 15 , 2022

Balenciaga is quitting Elon Musk’s Twitter platform. Photo: Balenciaga

Musk took Twitter private on October 27, much to the dismay of many users as the new CEO fired half of its workforce and enforced a dubious paid verification service

Balenciaga joins many brands that have boycotted the service, like theatrical guide Playbill that quit because of Twitter’s ‘tolerance for hate and negativity’

Balenciaga has joined other brands in quitting Twitter after billionaire Elon Musk acquired the social media platform last month and upended content rules.

The luxury brand confirmed that it deleted its Twitter account and has not yet commented further.

Balenciaga’s spring fashion show in New York, on May 23. Photo: Balenciaga

Balenciaga, based in Paris, is the latest company to quit the troubled platform since Musk took it private on October 27 and made major changes, including firing half its workforce and starting a paid verification service that led to the proliferation of impostor accounts. One pretended to be Eli Lilly and tweeted “insulin is free now”, which caused a steep decline in the drugmaker’s stock.

Twitter has undergone plenty of upheaval since Elon Musk took the social media platform private. Photo: Reuters

Other companies have paused advertising on the platform, including General Motors, Volkswagen, Pfizer and General Mills.

Author Ken Kesey holds an original playbill from the 1963 production starring Kirk Douglas of the play based on Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, in his Pleasant Hill, Oregon office, in 2001. Photo: AP

On November 11, theatrical guide Playbill left a final tweet for its 400,000 followers that read: “Because of its tolerance for hate, negativity and misinformation, our time with the social media platform has come to an end.” It warned fans to ignore any content from a Twitter account that contains the Playbill name. “Please understand that it is not us.”

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