There is no way around it. Elon Musk is a brilliant businessman. If you display the man a box, he will think outside of it. The CEO chased away all of Twitter's advertisers, so he's been trying to figure out how to make money for his company lately.
Based on a report in the Platformer newsletter, Twitter is working on a plan that would force users to opt in to targeted ads, removing a years-old privacy setting that gives users more control over their data. But wait, there's more! The new strategy may require you to share your location data and allow Twitter to sell your data to third parties. Furthermore, the company may seek your permission to use your contacts and the phone number you provided for two-factor authentication to target advertising. These are not only brilliant ideas; they are almost certainly illegal as well.
As per Platformer's sources, Twitter's new innovation would display a full-screen pop-up asking users to consent to personalized advertising and location data collection. Because the only reason to get rid of the pop-up would be to say yes, using Twitter would be impossible without consenting to the new data regime.
Several laws are in the way of what Elon may be planning.
The GDPR is in effect in Europe. Just last week, the EU issued a ruling against Meta that prohibited this type of mandatory consent. California has the CCPA as well as its younger brother, the CPRA, which takes effect on January 1.
Both essentially state that you cannot compel people to consent to data sharing and targeted advertising.
Furthermore, the plan may run afoul of Apple, Inc., a consumer electronics manufacturer that makes a big deal about privacy. If you join up for the $8 per month Twitter Blue service, you will reportedly be able to avoid targeted advertising. Apple claims that forcing users to choose between ad tracking and a paid service will result in your app being removed from the App Store.
Then there's the Federal Trade Commission. The reported plan could result in enforcement action, if only because Twitter recently paid the FTC a $150 million fine for targeting ads without permission using two-factor authentication phone numbers. The company has been under an FTC consent decree since 2011. Elon has benefited from resignations, firings, and other personnel changes in Twitter's legal department.
Twitter currently lacks a communications department, as Musk laid off half of the company. As a result, the company did not respond to a request for comment right away. A quick look at Twitter reveals that hundreds, if not thousands, of users are upset with the whole forced consent idea, and many have threatened to leave the site if it goes through.
Selling your data and showing you more targeted ads would solve a lot of Twitter's problems if it weren't for the CCPA, the FTC, the GDPR, Apple, and Twitter's own users. Ads generate 90% of Twitter's revenue, and the company's relationship with advertisers is deteriorating.
Elon tweeted over the weekend to thank advertisers for returning, which, uh, doesn't seem to be a thing that happened in the universe the rest of us live in. One former executive defined the advertiser situation at Twitter as "catastrophic" in late November.
Traffic to Twitter's ad management tool was down 75% in October and then 85% in November, compared to the same time last year, according to the Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, Twitter alleviated advertisers' concerns about rising hate speech by running advertisements for major corporations on the profiles of white nationalists. Twitter's ad business was already in danger before Musk dumped the majority of his company's biggest advertisers.