Elon Musk has shared a pretty brutal reply to advertisers who have pulled out of using his platform X - better known as Twitter - following a controversial post.
The billionaire, who bought the social media platform last year for approximately $44 billion, has been making headlines with his controversial changes, from overhauling employees to changing the name and the branding.
However, his current controversy came after he appeared to endorse an antisemitic post on the platform, which led to multiple advertisers, including Disney, Apple, and IBM, pulling their ads from the site.
Musk hit back at questions that the move could "kill" Twitter/X, and shared a pretty blunt response to advertisers "blackmailing" him with their boycott - by telling them to "go f**k themselves".
Earlier in the month, the Tesla CEO had appeared to endorse a tweet by @breakingbaht, which alleged that: "Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them," to which Musk replied: "You have spoken the actual truth."
This comment led to several companies cutting ties with Twitter/X, pulling their advertising from the platform.
Musk addressed the controversy on Wednesday night (November 29) while appearing at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit.
When asked about the boycott, Musk said that advertisers who were concerned about his conduct should stop spending on the platform, which has historically relied on revenue from advertising.
Responding to a question about the recent boycott, Musk replied: "Don’t advertise. If someone is going to try and blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go f**k yourself. Go f**k yourself. Is that clear? Hey Bob, if you’re in the audience. That’s how I feel, don’t advertise."
The 'Bob' in question is believed to be in reference to Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, which was one of the brands that had paused their advertising on the platform in response to Musks's tweet.
Iger had also been at the same event earlier in the day but declined to comment when asked if Disney would later resume advertising on Twitter/X, adding: "By him taking the position he took, we felt that the association with that position, and Elon Musk and X, was not a positive one for us."
Musk addressed the response to his controversial tweet on Wednesday, admitting it was "one of the most foolish if not the most foolish thing I’ve ever done on the platform."
Earlier in the week, Musk had traveled to Israel to meet with its prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as the country's president Isaac Herzog, who told Musk that social media, "including some you lead, harbor so much of the age-old disease of antisemitism."
Angelo Carusone, chair and president of Media Matters, told Wired: "Advertisers like IBM and Apple aren’t just big names, they’re big spenders on X," adding that prominent brands such as Apple are often used by other companies to judge where it is wise to place their own ads, creating a "halo effect".
Despite acknowledging that a loss of ad revenue could be Twitter/X's eventual downfall, Musk did not back down on remaining unfiltered with his own social media use, adding: "I have no problem being hated, hate away."
.png_LlQ82r?tr=h-40)
.png_LlQ82r?tr=h-184)
