Twitter Inc Loses Disney Deal, Partly Due To Its Negative Image [REPORT]

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Twitter’s poor image led it to lose the deal it had with The Walt Disney Company. The micro-blogging network is often used for bullying and abusive behavior, and this reputation might harm the media giant’s wholesome image if case it pursued a deal with it. For this reason, the deal did not go through, reported Bloomberg.

Poor reputation a major hindrance for Twitter

Twitter has a hands-off approach to abuse and harassment, which has attracted a lot of criticism. The social network does not require users to reveal their real names, and this encourages them to engage into sexist, racist and anti-Semitic internet trolling.

Twitter has increased scrutiny of harassing and abusive tweets on the platform in recent years, though the problem has plagued it since the beginning. The company has worked on some solutions such as letting people block keywords, but it needs to do more; otherwise it will continue losing important users such as actress Leslie Jones, who temporarily departed the network due to verbal attacks on her.

Also some users sent vicious messages to Robin Williams’ daughter after his death in August 2014, after which she abandoned the app. Also writer Lindy West revealed in February 2015 that some users were making crude comments about her through an account created in the name of her deceased father.

Another reason why Disney did not pursue the deal?

Twitter has added features such as live-streams of political debates and sports games, but that reputation has become a sort of black eye. Rivals such as Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook boast of massive fanbases, leaving Twitter far behind them.

Apart from the poor reputation, there was reportedly one more reason Disney did not pursue the deal. Twitter is running in losses but still has a market value of $12 billion, which is pretty high. The deal would have been a big one even for Disney, which is 12 times bigger than the micro-blogging firm, notes Bloomberg.

Twitter has been facing financial troubles for quite a long time, and there were reports that it might be soon taken over. The names of quite a few companies that might be interested in taking over Twitter came up, and Disney was one of them. The social network has reportedly told potential buyers that it intends to wrap up sales negotiations by October 27.

On Monday, Twitter shares closed down 0.83% at $16.73. Year to date, the stock is down almost 25%, while in the last year, it is down more than 46%.

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