Elon Musk says he tried to 'appease' activists, but they forced advertisers to leave Twitter and caused 'massive drop in revenue'

Billionaire entrepreneuer Elon Musk complained Friday that activists had pressured advertisers to leave Twitter despite the fact that he did everything he could appease them.

Musk has been assailed by many on the left who fear that he will change content moderation on the popular social media platform to allow more strident voices from the right to have greater access.

"Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists," said Musk.

"Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America," he added.

Among the companies who said they had put their Twitter advertising campaigns on hold where General Motors, General Mills, Pfizer, and Volkswagen. In a later tweet, Musk said that the company was losing over $4 million a day in order to justify the massive layoffs he ordered at Twitter.

Musk's lament occasioned some unrequested advice from many on the right.

"The Fortune 100 have become the economic enforcers for the radical Left," responded Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. "The Dems support censorship & Big Business is in bed with them trying to silence Americans. If you value your liberties, fight back."

"Your mistake was trying to appease the activists. Would be better to either laugh at them or ignore them," replied rapid response director for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) Christina Pushaw.

"Stop trying to appease the activists," responded radio talk show host Erick Erickson.

Here's more about Twitter's drop in revenue:

Elon Musk says Twitter revenue dropped amid advertiser pulloutswww.youtube.com