X UK revenues drop nearly 60% in a year as content concerns spook advertisers
UK revenues at Elon Musk’s X fell by almost 60% in a year as advertisers pulled their spending over concerns about the social media platform’s content.News of the plummeting financial performance comes after X switched off the image creation function on its AI tool Grok for the vast majority of users after a widespread outcry about its use to create sexually explicit and violent imagery.In the UK, the social media site recorded a 58.3% fall in revenues from £69.1m in 2023 to £28.
9m last year, according to the latest financial figures published at Companies House covering the year to 31 December 2024.Pre-tax profits plunged from £2.2m to £767,000 year-on-year.That contrasts with £8.5m in pre-tax profits in 2022, the year Musk took control of the site then known as Twitter.
“The significant decrease in the performance of the company is a result of the decline of advertising revenue primarily driven by a reduction in spend from large brand advertisers due to concerns about brand safety, reputation and/or content moderation,” X said.“The business continues to take proactive measures to build brand safety tools, invest in platform safety and content moderation and then educate advertisers about these initiatives.”Since Musk completed his $44bn takeover of the platform at the end of 2022, the social media company’s commercial performance has plummeted and 80% of UK staff have been cut.Total staff numbers in the UK fell by a third last year, from 114 to 76 – compared with a workforce of 399 when Musk took over.X said that from the point of acquisition until the end of last year, it had recognised more than £22m in redundancy costs.
In an onstage interview at an event in New York in 2023, Musk told advertisers who had pulled money from X over his endorsement of an antisemitic tweet to “go fuck yourself”.Months later the billionaire went on to sue major companies including Unilever, the Marmite-to-Dove conglomerate, accusing them of unlawfully conspiring in a “massive advertiser boycott”.Musk dropped Unilever from the lawsuit in 2024, but others – including the food and consumer goods groups Mars, Nestlé and Colgate-Palmolive – are still being pursued.Despite ongoing issues with content across the platform, X claims in its accounts that it has become the “platform of choice for world-changing conversations, events and breaking news, ranging from presidential elections, to the latest developments in AI, to international sports events”.The company said that following Musk’s takeover it had taken “significant steps to reduce its cost base and improve its financial performance”.
The site’s Grok AI tool was restricted on Friday after Musk was threatened with fines, regulatory action and amid reports of a possible ban on X in the UK.The tool had been used to manipulate images of women to remove their clothes and put them in sexualised positions.The functionality has been switched off, except for paying subscribers.Users making such requests on the site receive an automated response from Grok that says: “Image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers.”The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know.
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Why Russia’s economy is unlikely to collapse even if oil prices fall | Phillip Inman
Pacing inside the Kremlin last weekend, as news feeds churned out minute-by-minute reports of Donald’s Trump’s Venezuelan coup, Vladimir Putin may have been wondering what it would mean for the price of oil.Crude oil has lubricated the Russian economy for decades – far more than gas exports to Europe – and so the threat of falling oil prices, prompted by US plans for control of Venezuela’s rigs, will have been a source of concern.Opinion is divided on how quickly the South American country’s creaking oil industry can be revived. But some analysts believe that Venezuela, home to the world’s largest proven reserves, could be pumping millions of additional barrels as early as this year, hitting the global price and squeezing Russia’s income.US sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil last year and a rise in the rouble, depressing income from oil sales in dollars, have already reduced receipts for Moscow
Wessex Water bosses handed £50,000 in extra pay despite Labour government’s bonus ban
The bosses of Wessex Water received £50,000 in previously undisclosed extra pay from a parent company, in the same year that the utility was banned from paying bonuses, the Guardian can reveal.Chief executive Ruth Jefferson and chief financial officer Andy Pymer were paid £24,000 and £27,000 respectively in the year to June 2025, according to a spokesperson for Wessex Water’s owner, the Malaysian YTL group.The payments came from Wessex Water Ltd, which is the parent company of Wessex Water Services Ltd, the regulated water supplier for 2.9 million customers in south-west England. YTL said the payments were not bonuses
Elon Musk says UK wants to suppress free speech as X faces possible ban
Elon Musk has accused the UK government of wanting to suppress free speech after ministers threatened fines and a possible ban for his social media site X after its AI tool, Grok, was used to make sexual images of women and children without their consent.The billionaire claimed Grok was the most downloaded app on the UK App Store on Friday night after ministers threatened to take action unless the function to create sexually harassing images was removed.Responding to threats of a ban from the government, Musk wrote: “They just want to suppress free speech”.Thousands of women have faced abuse from users of the AI tool which was first used to digitally strip fully clothed photographs into images showing them wearing micro bikinis, and then used for extreme image manipulation.Pictures of teenage girls and children were altered to show them wearing swimwear, leading experts to say some of the content could be categorised as child sexual abuse material
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Jess Hull steers Australia to relay gold at world cross-country championships in US
The Olympic medalist Jess Hull has steered a star-studded Australian quartet to a mighty relay win at the world athletics cross-country championships in Florida.Ollie Hoare, Linden Hall, Jack Anstey and Hull took charge to claim gold in the 4x2000m mixed relay in Tallahassee on Saturday.It Australia’s fifth medal in the 46-edition history of the championships.The team clocked a time of 22min 23sec to win by three seconds ahead of France, followed by Ethiopia (22min 34sec), Kenya (22min 42sec) and the US (22min 43sec) among 15 teams.Hoare put the Australians in contention in the opening leg before Hall opened a lead of six seconds then Anstey consolidated and Hull commanded the anchor leg
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