In a curious interview at the New York Times' DealBook Summit, Elon Musk suggested that advertisers who are being blackmailed out of X should go to ….
Elon Musk gives an interview during The New York Times' annual DealBook session on Nov. 29, 2023, in New York. Among other things, he sent the following to the companies (such as Disney, Apple and IBM) who are leaving X, after his anti-Semitic post, and who are threatening to "shut down" the platform message: "Go to c...".
Musk, speaking Wednesday night at the New York Times' DealBook Summit , said advertisers concerned about his behavior should stop spending on the platform, which has historically depended on income of advertisements.
“Don't advertise,” Musk said when asked about X's recent troubles. “If somebody tries to blackmail me with ads, blackmail me with money, go c…. this; Hi Bob, if you're in the audience. That's how I feel, don't advertising».
Musk was referring to Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, which is among the companies that stopped advertising on X this month in response to Musk's recent actions. Iger spoke at the New York Times event earlier and declined to comment on whether his company would continue to advertise on X. "It wasn't positive for us," Iger said.
Watch the video interview below:
On November 17, Axios reported that Apple was pulling its ads from X. Other brands, including IBM, Oracle, Lionsgate and Disney, followed suit.
Musk probably needs Iger's ad spend more than Disney needs X. The ad crisis of X started on November 15th when user @breakingbaht posted that "Jewish communities are promoting the exact same dialectical hate against whites, while supposedly wanting people to stop using it against them." Musk's response was: "You told the real truth," a response widely seen as supporting the "great replacement" conspiracy theory popular among right-wing extremists.
Speaking Wednesday at the New York Times event, Musk said the post was "one of the dumbest, if not the dumbest, things I've ever done on the platform."
Earlier this week he traveled to Israel and met with Isaac Herzog, the country's president, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Speaking to Musk, Herzog said social media, "including some that you lead, harbors much of the age-old disease of anti-Semitism."
