Balenciaga is the first major brand to delete its Twitter account
Balenciaga seems to cut problematic people out of his life. A month after the luxury fashion house became the first company to sever its ties with Ye, Balenciaga has now left Elon Musk.
Paris-based brand owned by fashion conglomerate Kering has removed its profile from Twitter after the arrival of Elon Musk fueled fears about the social media platform’s direction.
Balenciaga hasn’t elaborated on why it decided to delete its account and leave behind the 1 million followers it had on the platform, but it comes at a time when changes to Twitter’s verification policy are spreading Fraudster accounts and Twitter’s reputation are endangering public corporations and notables.
Elon Musk recently overturned Twitter’s verified account policy, and now anyone on the platform can be verified with a “Twitter Blue” icon for $8 a month. This has led to a spate of fake accounts pretending to be celebrities, politicians, and corporations.
The most notable corporate victim of this policy change was Eli Lilly. A Twitter user created a new account pretending to be the pharma giant and paid for verification before sending out a quip tweet that read, “We’re excited to announce that insulin is now free.” . The tweet caused Eli Lilly’s share price to plummet. Gun maker Lockheed Martin met a similar fate when a user with a verified account impersonating the company tweeted that Lockheed would stop gun sales in certain countries.
Balenciaga confirmed this Fashion that it had deleted its Twitter, making it the first brand of its size and prestige to bid farewell to the platform. It comes a month after the fashion brand became the first company to sever ties with Ye, officially known as Kanye West, following his anti-Semitic tirade on Instagram and Twitter.
Kering didn’t answer wealth‘s request for comment pending publication.
Balenciaga goes one step further
While Balenciaga is the first major brand to completely delete its account, many others have paused advertising on the site to “wait and see” whether inappropriate and hateful content is rampant on the Musk-owned social media giant.
General Motors – Musk’s Tesla rival – was the first brand to publicly announce that it would pause its advertising on Twitter. At the same time, United Airlines and Pfizer also quietly paused their ad spend. Soon after, it was reported that advertising giant Interpublic Group was recommending its clients to temporarily pause ad spending on Twitter. IPG is one of the “Big Four” agency companies alongside WPP, Publicis and Omnicom and manages the public relations of Coca-Cola, American Express, Johnson & Johnson, Nintendo and others.
Elon Musk is stuck in a catch-22. Advertising once made up 90% of Twitter’s revenue. To diversify Twitter’s revenue streams, Musk has proposed paywalls and paid verification options to bring in more money: However, there is a major risk with paid verification as it undermines the value of legitimate high profile accounts. The more Musk tries to diversify its revenue streams, the more dubious the content on the platform could become, which would likely result in more advertisers fleeing the platform.
To allay advertisers’ fears, Musk held a Twitter section last week to address their concerns about the rising rise in hate speech and misinformation, and shared his plans to address those issues.
Twitter space may not have been enough to allay fears over Balenciaga, which has been ranked as the hottest brand of 2021 under the leadership of creative director Demna Gvasalia.
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