Linda Yaccarino

According to an internal presentation obtained by The New York Times, Twitter’s U.S. advertising revenue for the five weeks from April 1 to the first week of May was $88 million, down 59% from a year earlier. The document says the company has regularly fallen short of its U.S. weekly sales projections, sometimes by as much as 30 percent. The company has forecast that its U.S. ad revenue this month will be down at least 56 percent each week compared with a year ago, according to one internal document. Neither CEO Yaccarino nor Musk commented on the report.

According to staff interviews, Twitter’s ad sales staff is concerned that advertisers may be spooked by a rise in hate speech and pornography on the social network, as well as more ads featuring online gambling and marijuana products.  In one week last month, four of Twitter’s top 10 U.S. advertisers were online gambling and fantasy sports betting companies, according to one presentation. Twitter has also started allowing ads for cannabis accessories, including “bongs, vapes, rolling paper,” as well as erectile dysfunction products and services, according to internal emails.

Former employees say some of Twitter’s biggest advertisers — including Apple, Amazon and Disney — have been spending less on the platform than last year, and that large specialized “banner” ads on Twitter’s trends page that can cost $500,000 for 24 hours and are almost always bought by large brands to promote events, shows or movies, are often going unfilled.