Elon Musk’s vision for a Twitter that allows any and all content was put to the test Thursday by rapper Ye’s tweet featuring a swastika.

Musk has forged ahead with his plans to create a so-called free speech platform in the month since he took over Twitter as part of a $44 billion acquisition — removing the COVID-19 misinformation policy, cutting key staff and replatforming banned accounts. But his decision to suspend Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, highlights the tightrope Musk is walking between appeasing his supporters who welcome his “free speech” vision and running a viable social media site.

“I think [Musk] saw a moment to try and work the room to say, ‘look what I did. I stopped the swastika,’” said Angelo Carusone, president and CEO of the left-leaning watchdog group Media Matters for America.

Before Elon Musk bought Twitter, slurs against Black Americans showed up on the social media service an average of 1,282 times a day. After the billionaire became Twitter’s owner, they jumped to 3,876 times a day.

Slurs against gay men appeared on Twitter 2,506 times a day on average before Mr. Musk took over. Afterward, their use rose to 3,964 times a day.

And antisemitic posts referring to Jews or Judaism soared more than 61 percent in the two weeks after Mr. Musk acquired the site.

These findings — from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the Anti-Defamation League and other groups that study online platforms — provide the most comprehensive picture to date of how conversations on Twitter have changed since Mr. Musk completed his $44 billion deal for the company in late October. While the numbers are relatively small, researchers said the increases were atypically high.

The World Cup has historically been a boon for Twitter, bringing in record traffic and an influx of advertising dollars.

But this time, when the global soccer tournament started on Nov. 20, Twitter’s U.S. ad revenue was running at 80 percent below internal expectations for that week, three people with knowledge of the figures said.

In tandem, Twitter was rapidly cutting its revenue projections. The company previously forecast that it would generate $1.4 billion in the last three months of the year, down from $1.6 billion a year ago because of the global economic downturn. But as Twitter kept missing its weekly advertising targets, that number slid to $1.3 billion, then to $1.1 billion, two people said.

A person familiar with the matter confirmed that Apple has pared back its Twitter ads. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company holds meetings with Twitter to discuss various issues — roughly once a week — just as it does with other major social networking apps, including Facebook and Instagram.

A number of large companies have paused their ads on Twitter since Musk took over the company. The exodus included General Mills Inc. and Pfizer Inc., and the billionaire acknowledged that the defections led to a “massive drop” in revenue.

Elon Musk’s tumultuous reign at Twitter has led to a damaging rift with top brands and marketers, with the social media company’s $5bn-a-year advertising business hit by tensions over content moderation and resources.

Multiple top advertising agencies and media buyers told the Financial Times that nearly all of the big brands they represent have paused spending on the social media platform, citing alarm at Musk’s ad hoc approach to policing content and decision to axe many of its ad sales team.

A coalition of civil rights activists on Monday were urging Twitter's advertisers to issue statements about pulling their ads off the social media platform after its owner Elon Musk lifted the ban on tweets by former U.S. President Donald Trump.

In recent weeks, 50 of the top 100 advertisers have either announced or seemingly stopped advertising on Twitter. These advertisers have accounted for nearly $2 billion in spending on the platform since 2020, and over $750 million in advertising in 2022 alone.

In addition to advertisers that have seemingly stopped all advertising on Twitter as of November 21, there are an additional seven advertisers which appear to be slowing the rate of their advertising on the platform to almost nothing. Since 2020, these seven advertisers have accounted for over $255 million in spending on Twitter, and nearly $118 million in advertising in 2022.

Civil rights organizations are calling on advertisers to boycott Twitter in response to Elon Musk's weekend decision to reinstate former President Donald Trump's account on the social media site.

Banned from Twitter in 2021 because of concerns he could incite further violence following the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, Trump was reinstated on the platform on Saturday based on the results of a Twitter poll posted by Musk.

"The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei," Twitter's new CEO tweeted, using a Latin phrase meaning "the voice of the people, the voice of God."

Now, groups including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Anti-Defamation League say Twitter's billionaire owner is breaking his previous commitment to create a "content moderation council" before reinstating controversial accounts.

After his $44 billion takeover of Twitter, the Tesla founder in late October declared he would form the council with "widely diverse viewpoints," saying that no one whose account has been banned would be allowed to return to the platform before that group has a chance to meet.

“In less than three weeks Musk has gone back on every promise he made to civil-rights leaders and advertisers,” said Jessica Gonzalez, the co-CEO of media advocacy group Free Press, who met with Musk alongside the NAACP, the Anti-Defamation League and other civil rights groups in early November.

Bringing back someone like Trump — who could spin up controversy with a single late night tweet — returns a specific kind of political uncertainty back to the platform. And even some in Trump’s own party aren’t excited about his much-awaited first tweet, if he decides to rejoin.

More than a third of Twitter’s top 100 marketers have not advertised on the social media network in the past two weeks, a Washington Post analysis of marketing data found — an indication of the extent of skittishness among advertisers about billionaire Elon Musk’s control of the company.

Dozens of top Twitter advertisers, including 14 of the top 50, have stopped advertising in the few weeks since Musk’s chaotic acquisition of the social media company, according to The Post’s analysis of data from Pathmatics, which offers brand analysis on digital marketing trends.

A coalition of civil rights activists on Monday were urging Twitter's advertisers to issue statements about pulling their ads off the social media platform after its owner Elon Musk lifted the ban on tweets by former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump's account, which Twitter had suspended after the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021 citing the risk of further incitement of violence, was reinstated over the weekend. Some 90% of Twitter's revenue comes from selling digital ads.

The groups in the Stop Toxic Twitter coalition complained that Musk had vowed to advertisers that Twitter would take a considered approach to reinstating banned accounts and convene a new content moderation council. No such council has been created as of Monday.

Unless and until Musk can be trusted to enforce Twitter’s prior community standards, the platform is not safe for users or advertisers,” the #StopToxicTwitter coalition led by Accountable Tech, Free Press and Media Matters for America said in a statement. “For those still advertising on Twitter right now: know that you are contributing directly to an erratic billionaire’s decimation of Twitter and its rapid devolution into utter chaos.

In his three weeks as Twitter CEO, Elon Musk has orchestrated a mass exodus of safety experts and turned the platform into a hellscape of misinformation, hate, and extremism. Now he has decided to hastily and unilaterally replatform Donald Trump — the man who incited a deadly insurrection against the U.S. government.

Unless and until Musk can be trusted to enforce Twitter’s prior community standards, the platform is not safe for users or advertisers. For those still advertising on Twitter right now: know that you are contributing directly to an erratic billionaire’s decimation of Twitter and its rapid devolution into utter chaos.

Macy’s is the latest brand to pause its advertising on Twitter. The retailer’s halt comes just as it had been in the middle of big-spending campaigns heading into the holiday shopping season and Thanksgiving, a holiday it’s closely tied to with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, a moment typically shared on Twitter.

Balenciaga has become one of the first major fashion brands to leave Twitter amid concerns about the platform's future under Elon Musk.

Representatives for Balenciaga confirmed to Vogue on Monday that the company's Twitter account had been removed but did not comment publicly on the reasons behind the decision.

The brand follows the departure of several celebrities and public figures, including Shonda Rhimes and Gigi Hadid, who have expressed concerns over Musk's leadership.

Concerns over content moderation and a rise in hate speech are some of the common reasons cited by those choosing to abandon the platform.

The advertiser exodus from Elon Musk’s Twitter Inc. is accelerating, and it could be hard for the billionaire to bring them back soon.

The lengthening list of advertisers pausing their spending on the social-media platform two weeks after Mr. Musk’s $44 billion takeover is adding to the financial pressure on the company. Mr. Musk spent the past week trying to assuage advertisers’ concerns, but many of them are defecting anyway.

It’s the latest in a string of advertisers that have changed plans following the chaos at Twitter since Elon Musk’s takeover. Last week, IPG, another ad agency giant, recommended its clients suspend their advertising on Twitter, according to CNBC. Companies like Volkswagen, General Motors, and General Mills have also pulled ad spending from Twitter in recent weeks.

The majority of Twitter’s revenue comes from ads, and despite Musk’s questionable efforts at soothing their concerns, advertisers are worried about their content showing up next to an influx of hate speech and impersonations. They’re also concerned about Musk’s own tweets, like his threats to “thermonuclear name & shame” advertisers who pull their money from the platform.

The loss of the senior executives, especially Roth and Wheeler, will make it extraordinarily difficult to lure already skeptical advertisers back to the social media site. And with Musk effectively nuking verification on Twitter, giving way to an explosion of trolls and others creating imposter accounts, it’s hard to see why advertisers would put their money (and faith) into Twitter.

And given that Twitter heavily relies on advertising revenue, the developments spell exceptionally troubling news for the already-imperiled company.