Elon Musk has hit out at advertisers who have pulled their advertisements from X (formerly known as Twitter) citing increased antisemitism on the platform. An unusually charged-up Musk told the advertisers to go ‘f**k’ themselves whilst giving a special mention to Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger.
Musk went on a profanity-laden tirade during an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin at The New York Times Dealbook Summit.
“Don’t advertise. If someone is going to try and blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go f**k yourself,” Musk said. “Go f**k yourself, is that clear? Hey Bob, if you’re in the audience. That’s how I feel, don’t advertise.”
After the barrage of expletives, Musk explained how advertisers were writing the death sentence of X.
“What this advertising boycott is going to do is, it is going to kill the company. And the whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company,” he said.
Musk was responding after Iger, during one of the earlier sessions, explained his company’s decision to pull advertising from the platform.
Elon Musk in response to advertisers like Disney pulling their ads on Twitter/X:
“Don’t advertise…go fuck yourself. Go. Fuck. Yourself. Is that clear?“ pic.twitter.com/p5FRQlBcAj
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 29, 2023
Why are advertisers suspending ads on X?
Notably, Musk came under heavy fire after he endorsed a conspiracy theory that was interpreted as a form of antisemitic behaviour. Musk pointed to the “Great Replacement” theory which states that Jews and leftists are attempting to weaken white majorities with non-white immigrants that will lead to a “white genocide”.
Soon after his post, the White House released a statement, accusing Musk of “abhorrent promotion” of antisemitism. As the controversy snowballed, the likes of Walt Disney, Warner Bros Discovery and NBCUniversal parent Comcast pulled the plug on ads on X.
Earlier this week, he spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said he is against antisemitism and anything that “promotes hate and conflict” and stated that X would not promote hate speech.
“The fact that you came here speaks volumes of your commitment to try to secure a better future,” Netanyahu told Musk during the conversation.
This was the second time the duo had discussed the sensitive topic. In September, Netanyahu visited the Tesla factory in California where he held a face-to-face conversation with Musk.
“All I can say is, I hope you find, within the confines of the First Amendment, the ability to stop not only antisemitism, or roll it back as best you can, but any collective hatred of people….I know you’re committed to that and I hope you succeed,” said Netanyahu.
Musk has attributed a ‘significant decline’ in X’s advertising revenue to the allegations of antisemitism. According to Musk, the platform’s advertising revenue has plummeted by 60 per cent in the US alone.
(With inputs from agencies)
