BSI Co-Founder, Industry Experts Weigh In On Elon's Bid for Twitter

The Brand Safety Institute (BSI) was among the digital advertising industry leaders weighing on Elon Musk’s offer to purchase the social media platform, Twitter. Co-founder of the BSI Mike Zaneis was one of several experts quoted in an NBC News story on their concerns about what a Musk ownership of Twitter would mean for brand safety and suitability on the platform.

“This topic certainly has been top of mind for marketers over the past few days,” Zaneis told NBC. He went on to describe the free-for-all early days of Twitter, and why the platform and industry had worked hard to get past those times. “Nobody wants to go back to the Wild, Wild West. It was painful. It was harmful to brands. It was harmful to citizens.”

“Nobody wants to go back to the Wild, Wild West. It was painful. It was harmful to brands. It was harmful to citizens. We’ve made incredible strides,” Zaneis declared, “and I think a reversal would be unfortunate.”

Musk himself touched on the role of advertising on social media in recent times, writing, “The power of corporations to dictate policy is greatly enhanced if Twitter depends on advertising money to survive,” in a since-deleted tweet.

Other industry leaders echoed Zaneis’ sentiments about the importance to the advertising industry of a moderated Twitter. The article also pointed out that proposed regulation, particularly in the European Union, might also get in the the way of Musk’s vision of a platform with little or no moderation.

Musk has, “never been in the business,” Siva Vaidhyanathan, director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia told NBC News. “He’s been in a scattershot of businesses that have nothing to do with media or communication.”

What’s at risk is an industry that showed “astonishing” growth in 2021, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s 2021 Internet Advertising Revenue Report.

“We’ve made incredible strides,” Zaneis declared, “and I think a reversal would be unfortunate.”