Volkswagen Pauses Advertising On Twitter

Volkswagen has paused paid advertising on Twitter for all its brands, which include Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley and Porsche.

Volkswagen had previously recommended its brands pause after Elon Musk took over the social media platform last month.

Volkswagen is the largest carmaker in Europe, with over $500 billion in assets, and was among Twitter's top advertisers.

"We are monitoring the situation closely and will decide on the next steps depending on developments," an Audi spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

Audi hasn't tweeted since Nov. 1 after previously posting nearly every day.

Bloomberg reported that Volkswagen has set up accounts on Mastodon, a rival to Twitter, and is the latest advertiser to raise concerns over Musk's ownership and his inflammatory tweets.

General Motors halted paid advertising on Oct. 28, saying it wanted to "understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership."

Companies are distancing themselves from Twitter because they are under "pressure, from a range of their stakeholders and consumers, around being connected with content that is viewed as inflammatory," Matthew Quint, director of the Center on Global Brand Leadership at Columbia Business School told The Washington Post.

Quint said that Musk has become "a very strong brand himself, and a controversial brand."

Quint said more companies may also pause their advertising.

"The more he is out in the front, the more advertisers may...just choose to say I'm still not ready to be heavily associated with a Musk platform at this point," added Quint.