Twitter Fails to Pay Google and Amazon for Cloud Services
Key Highlights :
As the expiration of Twitter's contract with Google nears, the social media giant has stopped paying for Google Cloud services. The contract between Twitter and Google, signed prior to Elon Musk taking over the company in October 2020, was put in place to make it easier for Twitter to tackle scams and bot accounts on the platform. However, Twitter has been trying to renegotiate the terms of the contract since March, and has apparently not paid its bills to Amazon either.
In March, Amazon revealed it would withhold advertising payments until Twitter settled unpaid bills for cloud services. Since Mr. Musk took over the company, he has made an effort to reduce costs, which has included not paying rent in some of Twitter's office buildings, leading to litigation. Additionally, Mr. Musk has said he needs the company to cut at least $1 billion in cloud funding.
If Google prohibits Twitter from using its cloud services, it could have a huge impact on the trust and safety trams at the company. Twitter relies on cloud servers owned by Amazon and Google to host a number of its services, and without them, the platform could be severely disrupted.
The news that Twitter is failing to pay its bills is not new, but it is still concerning. It remains to be seen whether Twitter will be able to negotiate a new contract with Google, or if it will have to find an alternative solution. Whatever the outcome, it is clear that Twitter needs to take steps to ensure it is able to pay its bills in order to maintain the trust and safety of its platform.
