The pullback of advertisers from Twitter gathered steam on Friday amid rising worry that misinformation and hate speech can be allowed to proliferate on the platform below Elon Musk’s management.

The Volkswagen Group joined a number of different corporations in recommending that its automotive manufacturers, which embrace Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley and Porsche, pause their spending on Twitter out of considerations that their advertisements might seem alongside problematic content material. The Danish brewing firm Carlsberg Group additionally mentioned it had suggested its advertising and marketing groups to do the identical. The out of doors tools and attire retailer REI mentioned it will pause posts along with promoting spending “given the unsure way forward for Twitter’s skill to reasonable dangerous content material and assure model security for advertisers.” And a spokeswoman for United Airways, Leslie Scott, confirmed that the provider had suspended promoting on Twitter earlier this week.

Civil rights teams together with GLAAD and the Anti-Defamation League held a convention name on Friday urging different corporations to desert Twitter, saying that mass layoffs there have been gutting what they described as an already anemic content material moderation workers.

Even Mr. Musk acknowledged the promoting droop, tweeting on Friday morning that Twitter “has had a large drop in income,” which he blamed on activist teams pressuring advertisers.

The primary chaotic week of Mr. Musk’s possession of Twitter has given Madison Avenue whiplash, as advertisers wrestle to reconcile the billionaire’s guarantees to make the platform secure for manufacturers with considerations about a surge of extremism and false narratives, together with one promoted by Mr. Musk himself.

In his tweet about Twitter’s faltering income, Mr. Musk mentioned that “nothing has modified with content material moderation and we did every thing we might to appease the activists” — a declare that civil rights teams denied.

A minute earlier than he posted his remark, the ad-tracking platform MediaRadar launched statistics exhibiting that the variety of advertisers on Twitter had dropped from Might, quickly after Mr. Musk’s bid for the platform was introduced, by September, when he was nonetheless combating to get out of the deal he struck to purchase Twitter in April.

MediaRadar, which tracks advert campaigns for thousands and thousands of corporations, mentioned knowledge for October, when Mr. Musk took over Twitter, wouldn’t be out there till later this month.

Twitter had 3,900 advertisers in Might and a pair of,300 in August. The quantity rose to 2,900 in September, in accordance with MediaRadar. The analytics firm discovered that Normal Motors, which paused its spending on Twitter final week, had spent a mean of $1.7 million a month on the platform.

There have been greater than 1,000 new advertisers on the platform every month earlier than July, when Mr. Musk’s feud with Twitter started to accentuate and the variety of new advertisers sank to 200.

In September, there have been 668 new advertisers, MediaRadar discovered. Elements reminiscent of financial situations almost definitely performed a job within the exodus, as did uncertainty about Twitter’s possession and content material moderation insurance policies, mentioned Todd Krizelman, MediaRadar’s chief government, in a press release.

“Clearly, this acquisition is difficult advertiser confidence,” mentioned Mr. Krizelman. He added that Mr. Musk’s plans to search for income sources past advertisements might mitigate any injury brought on by Madison Avenue.

Following Mr. Musk’s tweet, a coalition of civil rights and activist teams referred to as a information convention to push for a worldwide promoting boycott of Twitter.

“We’re witnessing the real-time destruction of one of many world’s strongest communications platforms,” mentioned Nicole Gill, the manager director of the nonprofit group Accountable Tech, on the decision. “Until and till Musk can robustly implement Twitter’s current group requirements, the platform will not be secure for customers or for advertisers.”

Angelo Carusone, the chief government of the progressive nonprofit Media Issues for America, mentioned on the decision that he had labored on a number of efforts to make use of advertiser boycotts to strain social media corporations to wash up their platforms. Often, he mentioned, among the advertisers he solicits will flip down his requests, saying that reaching potential clients is the next precedence than making some extent to Silicon Valley.

However after the activist coalition reached out this week to Twitter’s prime 20 advertisers, together with Anheuser-Busch, Disney and Procter & Gamble, Mr. Carusone mentioned all the businesses he had been involved with had mentioned they had been both contemplating a spending pause or had been implementing one.

The businesses didn’t instantly reply to requests for touch upon Friday.

“I’ve by no means skilled that earlier than,” Mr. Carusone mentioned. “And I believe that’s the factor that’s most revealing, and demonstrates actual consensus concerning the present state of the disaster that Twitter is in.”