Twitter Is Refusing to Pay Its Google Cloud Bills, Platformer Reports

Elon Musk’s Twitter has reportedly refused to pay its Google Cloud bills as the company’s contract comes up for renewal this month. The standoff could result in the social media platform’s trust and safety teams being crippled, according to a report by Platformer.

The site said that unless Twitter pays or works something out, its access to Google’s cloud services will be cut off on June 30, when the contract expires. Before Elon Musk took over Twitter last year, the microblogging company signed a multi-year contract with Google to fight spam and protect accounts, among other things.

However, since the billionaire’s takeover of the company, he has been cutting costs and laying off employees to reduce Twitter’s spending on infrastructure. In November, he ordered Twitter’s infrastructure teams to cut their spending on cloud services by $1 billion per year. The move was a part of his larger plan to shrink the company and make it more profitable.

It’s unclear if this ongoing dispute with Google results from those cost-cutting efforts. Nevertheless, the report by Platformer said that Twitter’s attempts to move numerous of its infrastructure functions off of Google’s servers need to catch up to date. This includes services fighting spam and child sexual exploitation material (CSAM). It also means that some of Twitter’s moderation tools will be in danger of going offline. One of those tools is Smyte, a company Twitter acquired in 2018 to bolster its moderation capabilities.

If those moderation tools go offline, the site will not be able to achieve two of its top priorities: removing CSAM and combating bots. “A Twitter whose policies are defined by edict has little need for a trust and safety function dependent on external tools to get the job done,” Zoe Schiffer, Platformer’s managing editor, tweeted on Sunday.

Twitter has a long history of using third-party infrastructure providers to complement its servers. It hosts some of its services on its server farms and also houses others on the cloud platforms of both Amazon and Google. Platformer’s report said that this month, the company is working to move as many of its services off Google’s infrastructure as possible before the contract expires in June.

It’s unclear whether the ongoing dispute with Google results from these cost-cutting efforts, but it seems like it is. If the company’s contract with Google isn’t renewed by June 30, it may start experiencing major stability issues on its servers, which would likely be problematic for users and advertisers. Any instability would impact those who are looking to advertise on the site. That could lead to a loss in revenue for Twitter, which could prompt the site to resolve the issue sooner rather than later. If the company cannot stabilize its services, it will lose users and advertising revenue. That would significantly hinder Twitter’s quest to become a profitable and stable platform.

Chelsea Bonner

Hello, my name is Chelsea Bonner, With a body of work that encompasses everything from heart-wrenching dramas to epic adventures, I have proven time to time again that I am a true literary chameleon, able to adapt any style and tone to suit any genre or subject matter. Beyond my impressive literary achievements, I am also a respected figure in the writing community, serving as a mentor and role model to aspiring writers around the world. My commitment to fostering the next generation of talent is truly inspirational, and their impact on the literary world will be felt for years to come.

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