Elon Musk hurls defiant, profanity-laced retort at fleeing advertisers

Elon Musk has issued a defiant and profanity-laced message for the advertisers who pulled money from X in recent weeks amid a backlash over his endorsement of an antisemitic tweet and reports of increased hate speech on the platform.

Video of the interview, which was widely circulated, showed that Musk said, “Don’t advertise,” on Wednesday during an on-stage interview at an event in New York. “If someone’s going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself.”

Musk’s combative remarks came as part of the New York Times’ DealBook Summit. Moments before, the CEO had offered a moment of contrition for his 15 November tweet that endorsed an antisemitic post on X. He said it had been perhaps his worst post in his history of messages that included many “foolish” ones – including a 2018 tweet that cost him $40m in fines from the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Musk’s brief apology was followed by his characteristic antagonism. During the interview he bristled at the accusation of antisemitism and said that advertisers who left X , formerly known as Twitter, should not think they could blackmail him. He said “fuck you” numerous times, and at one point added the words “hey, Bob,” an apparent reference to Robert Iger, the chief executive of Walt Disney, which pulled ads on X.

Elon Musk hits out at X advertisers at New York Times DealBook summit – video

Apple, IBM and Coca-Cola also have removed paid advertisements from X in a continuing trend that could result in up to $75m in revenue losses.

The advertiser exodus began after non-profit Media Matters published a report that showed advertisements from major companies alongside pro-Nazi posts (Musk filed a lawsuit against the organization). It further escalated after Musk publicly agreed with an antisemitic tweet accusing Jewish people of “hatred against whites”.

Musk’s comments to advertisers come even as he acknowledged that their exodus could spell disaster for X, which he purchased for $44bn in 2022.

“What this advertising boycott is going to do is, it is going to kill the company,” he said on Wednesday. “And the whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company.”

Musk’s antics are the latest in an ongoing series of erratic decisions he has made since taking the helm of Twitter, many of which have concerned advertisers – which long have made up the core of the platform’s business.

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In the wake of backlash against his controversial post on X, Musk traveled to Israel and spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. On Wednesday Musk said the trip had been planned before his message and was “independent” of the issue.

During the conversation with Netanyahu, which took place shortly after Musk attacked the Anti-Defamation League, Netanyahu urged the billionaire to strike a balance between the protection of free speech online and fighting hate speech.

Reuters contributed to this report