main source of revenue, with many of the world's top brands putting their ad buys on hold, spooked by Musk's well-known disdain for content controls.
The mercurial tycoon on Friday complained on Twitter of a "massive drop in revenue" that he blamed on "activist groups" that were pressuring advertisers.
"We did everything we could to appease the activists. Extremely messed up! They're trying to destroy free speech in America," he added.
This appeared to refer to sk's recent meeting with civil rights groups in which he heard concerns that Twitter would open the floodgates to hate speech a week before midterm election in the United States.
In an effort to soothe nerves, Musk had vowed that Twitter will not become a "free-for-all hellscape", but since taking over the company he also has shared a tweet relaying a conspiracy theory about an assault on the husband of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
"We are witnessing the real time destruction of one of the world's most powerful communication systems. Elon Musk is an erratic billionaire who is dangerously unqualified to run this platform," said Nicole Gill, Executive Director of Accountable Tech.
She was part of a coalition of 60 rights groups calling on Friday for a boycott by advertisers of the Musk-owned platform.
Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, a leading civil rights organisation, said it would be "immoral, dangerous, and highly destructive to our democracy for any advertiser to fund a platform that fuels hate speech, election denialism and conspiracy theories".
"Until actions are taken to make this a safe space, we call on companies to pause all advertising on Twitter," he added.
Twitter head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth tried to soothe concerns, saying that about 15 per cent of his department had been let go in comparison to the 50 per cent cuts company-wide.
The site's "core moderation capabilities remain in place", he tweeted.
Though extremely influential with opinion-makers and celebrities, the California company has long struggled to generate profit and has failed to keep pace with Facebook, Instagram and TikTok in gaining new users.
In a sign that matters were not improving, data showed Twitter may have lost more than a million users since Musk took over.