Elon Musk’s very public $US44 billion ($66 billion) takeover of Twitter prompted major advertisers to abandon the platform in droves, with new figures showing a 46 per cent drop in Australian ad revenue in the final quarter of 2022 compared to the previous year.

Twitter’s ad revenue in Australia fell to $3.9 million in October-December from $7.3 million in the last three months of 2021, data from Standard Media Index shows. Standard Media measures how much media agencies spend on different platforms. Mr Musk became owner and CEO of the social platform in October.