The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) conducted a study that found that Twitter, with just 10 accounts, generates millions of dollars in revenue. And we are talking about accounts that Elon Musk announced an amnesty.

What is known

The researchers looked at 10 accounts, including those of Andrew Tate, anti-vaxxer Robert Malone, Daily Stormer neo-Nazi founder Andrew Anglin, and far-right platform The Gateway Pundit. All of them were sent to an eternal ban by the previous administration of Twitter, but the new owner of the social network canceled the block.

CCDH experts analyzed approximately 10,000 publications made over 47 days in December and January. On average, the total number of views of all tweets per day was 54 million. Extrapolating this over 365 days, we get 20 billion views per year.

Next, the researchers created three accounts and followed 10 accounts. Advertisements appeared on average every 6.7 publications. According to the analytical agency Brandwatch. The cost of 1000 views is $6.46. This means that from 20 billion views, Twitter generates more than $19 million in revenue.

The data may not be accurate. However, in any case, the study demonstrates how beneficial for social network earnings is the presence of controversial characters whose publications have large coverage.

The authors of the report noted that ads were sometimes displayed next to offensive posts. For example, they saw an Amazon Prime Video ad following Andrew Tate’s tweet in which he writes that “women can have a decent career solely in prostitution.” And NFL ads were mirrored after posting misinformation about COVID-19.

Source: Engadget