Twitter hammered as bad week in social media gets even worse

NEWYORK: Cracking down on hate, abuse and online trolls is also hurting Twitter’s standing with investors.

The company’s stock plunged in early trading on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange after it reported a decline in its monthly users and warned that the number could fall further in the coming months. The more than 18% drop in share value came one day after Facebook Inc. lost 19% of its value—its worst trading day since it went public in 2012.

Twitter says it’s putting the long-term stability of its platform above user growth. That leaves investors seemingly unable to value what the biggest companies in the sector, which rely on their potential user reach, are worth.

Twitter had 335 million monthly users in the quarter, below the 339 million Wall Street was expecting, and down slightly from 336 million in the first quarter. That overshadowed a strong monthly user growth of 3%.

The company said its monthly user number could continue to fall in the “mid-single-digit millions” in the third quarter.

Long criticized for allowing bad behaviour to run rampant on its platform, Twitter has begun to crack down, banning accounts that violate its terms and making others less visible.

At the same time, it must convince people it’s the go-to platform in social media, even though it is dwarfed right now by Facebook. Facebook has more than 2.23 billion users.

Twitter on Friday reiterated its efforts “to invest in improving the health of the public conversation” on its platform, making the “long-term health” of its service a priority over short-term metrics such as user numbers.