In a surprising turn of events, Elon Musk-owned Twitter is reportedly not paying certain bills to Google. This news comes shortly after reports that the social media platform had not paid rent for some of its office premises in London and San Francisco. According to The Platform, Twitter had signed a $1 billion contract with Google for Cloud services before Musk took over. However, as the contract renewal is due, Twitter has not cleared the bills.
The potential implications of this could be quite serious for Twitter, as the non-payment of bills could “cripple” the trust and safety teams. The Information reported that Twitter has been negotiating the contract with Google for some months now, and it is likely that this could be a negotiating tactic. Neither Twitter nor Google have officially commented on the matter as of now.
In March this year, another report by The Information suggested that Twitter had outstanding dues with Amazon Web Services (AWS) as well. It was reported that the contract between the two companies was worth $150 million, and Twitter had cleared close to $10 million in dues. Amazon had even threatened to pull advertising from the platform if the outstanding amount was not paid.
It is clear that since Musk has taken over, he has been on a mission to cut costs and the contract renegotiations could be a part of the same exercise. Twitter recently appointed Linda Yaccarino as its new CEO, while Musk has moved into a CTO role.
It is yet to be seen how this situation between Twitter and Google develops, and whether the bills will be cleared in time. It could have a major impact on the trust and safety teams, as well as the platform’s overall operations. It will be interesting to see how Twitter and Google handle this situation moving forward.
