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After five people were killed and dozens more were injured in November during a shooting at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado, Apple made what many would consider a very ordinary business decision to pause ads on Twitter temporarily. Two former Twitter employees told The New York Times that the tech company was protecting its brand by ensuring that Apple ads wouldn’t appear next to news reports of the mass shooting.
But Twitter CEO Elon Musk didn’t seem to connect the dots between the horrific event and Twitter’s biggest advertiser pulling ads from the platform. Instead, Musk sparked a rumor that Apple’s decision was about how Musk moderates Twitter content after he tweeted, “Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?”
Now, Bloomberg reports that Apple has “fully resumed” advertising on Twitter approximately two weeks after the Colorado shooting and days after Musk had a “good conversation” with Apple CEO Tim Cook, according to Musk. According to Reuters, Amazon is also investing big in Twitter advertising—committing $100 million a year—and joining other advertisers seemingly lured by the “biggest advertiser incentive ever” offered on Twitter.
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