New owner Elon Musk said on Friday Twitter had seen a “huge” drop in revenue and blamed activist groups pressuring advertisers.
The world's richest person, who took control of the social media company last week, said the decline came “even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists”.
“Extremely messed up! They're trying to destroy free speech in America,” he said in a tweet.
It was not immediately clear who Musk was referring to as “activists”.
Twitter recorded a fall in revenue in its last reported quarterly results in July, blaming Musk's $44bn buyout proposal and a weakening digital advertising market. Surging inflation and fears of a recession have forced some advertisers to slash their budgets.
Ad sales accounted for more than 90% of Twitter's revenue in the second quarter.
At a presentation for advertisers in May, some ad agencies and brands were already sceptical on concerns that Musk would scale back content moderation and security protection on the platform.
Several companies including General Mills and luxury car maker Audi of America have paused advertising on Twitter since Musk completed his purchase, while General Motors said it had temporarily halted paid advertising.
Musk last month said he wants Twitter to be “the most respected advertising platform” and not a “free-for-all hellscape”, in a bid to gain the trust of ad buyers ahead of the close of his deal.
Twitter will form a content-moderation council “with widely diverse viewpoints”, Musk tweeted last Friday, adding that no major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before the council convenes.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.