Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, has announced that the platform will soon start paying verified content creators for ads displayed in their replies. This move aims to incentivize creators and promote engagement on the platform. Musk revealed that Twitter will initially allocate $5 million for these payments. However, only verified creators will be eligible for compensation, and only ads served to verified users will be counted.
In a separate development, reports have emerged stating that Twitter has refused to pay its Google Cloud bills, jeopardizing the trust and safety services provided by the company. Twitter’s contract with Google Cloud, which includes services related to combating spam, removing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and safeguarding accounts, is up for renewal. Failure to settle the outstanding payment could result in Twitter’s access to Google Cloud being terminated when the contract expires on June 30th.
Twitter’s acquisition of Smyte in 2018, a service focused on addressing abuse and harassment, relies on the Google Cloud Platform. If Smyte is shut down as a result of the unpaid bills, it could hinder Twitter’s ability to tackle CSAM and bots, two priorities previously mentioned by Musk.
Additionally, Twitter has reportedly encountered payment delays with Amazon Web Services (AWS), prompting AWS to threaten withholding advertising payments. The social media company’s failure to pay its AWS bills for cloud computing services led to the dispute between the two companies.
Twitter has been engaged in negotiations to revise its contract with Google since March, but the payment disputes with both Google Cloud and AWS raise concerns about the functioning of Twitter’s trust and safety teams.
