By Jessica DiNapoli
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ) CEO Dirk Van de Put said in a Reuters Newsmaker interview on Tuesday that the maker of Oreo cookies has pulled its ads off Twitter after Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) boss Elon Musk acquired the social media site.
"What we’ve seen recently since the change on Twitter has been announced, is the amount of hate speech increase significantly," Van de Put said. "We felt there is a risk our advertising would appear next to the wrong messages.
"As a consequence, we have decided to take a pause and a break until that risk is as low as possible," he said.
Twitter last week laid off half its workforce as advertisers pulled spending amid concerns about content moderation. Automakers, General Mills Inc (NYSE:GIS) and United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL) Holdings Inc are among companies halting ads.
Twitter, which has lost many members of its communications team, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Van de Put added that Mondelez, which makes Cadbury and Milka chocolates, is expecting a strong holiday season. The consumer in Europe, Mondelez's largest market, is currently what worries him most, he added.