Today In The Twitter Saga

Advertisers plan to boycott Twitter if Elon Musk lets Donald Trump start tweeting again, report says

Elon Musk's takeover means Donald Trump could now return to Twitter.

• Some advertisers plan to pause their spending if that happens, The Wall Street Journal reported.
• Trump was banned after using Twitter to help fuel the January 6 Capitol riots last year.
• Advertisers plan to boycott Twitter if Elon Musk allows Donald Trump back on the platform after he took control on Thursday night, The Wall Street Journal reported.
• After paying $44 billion to close the deal he tried to walk away from, Musk swiftly fired four top executives including CEO Parag Agrawal and finance chief Ned Segal.

Advertisers are now weighing in as concerns over former President Donald Trump being reinstated grow.

Kieley Taylor, the global head of partnerships at advertising agency GroupM, told The Journal that letting Trump tweet again would be a red line for some major brands.

About a dozen of the agency's clients had asked to pause their ads on Twitter if the former president did make a return, and Taylor expected more to be in contact if his permanent ban was lifted, the newspaper reported.

"That doesn't mean that we won't be entertaining lots of emails and phone calls as soon as a transaction goes through," Taylor told the Journal. "I anticipate we'll be busy."

Musk has called Twitter's Trump ban a "morally bad decision" and "foolish in the extreme." He said in May the ban was "a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice."

Trump used the platform to help fuel the January 6 Capitol riots last year after he lost the 2020 presidential election.

Twitter said on January 8 it had permanently suspended Trump's account "due to the risk of further incitement of violence."

GroupM, Twitter, and Trump did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.