Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, speaks during a South by Southwest panel in Austin in 2018. © Suzanne Cordeiro / USA TODAY NETWORK
(New York, NY) – Elon Musk isn’t holding back regarding his thoughts when it comes to companies that have pulled ad campaigns from X, formerly known as Twitter. Musk, who owns the platform and serves as its CTO, was asked by New York Times contributor Andrew Ross Sorkin what he would say to those advertisers.
Musk cut Sorkin off and said he doesn’t want them to advertise on X. Pushed to elaborate, Musk said companies like Apple and Disney are essentially attempting financial blackmail, to which he added “go F— yourselves.” Sorkin was stunned and interjected, “but…” — to which Musk said let me make it clear, repeating the statement more slowly and mentioning Bob, which could have been a reference to Disney CEO Bob Iger.
After he endorsed a post on X some called anti-Semitic amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, some advertisers reacted and pulled campaigns. Musk calls the post a “mistake” and “foolish,” but he’s also suing Media Matters after they intimated that X allows anti-Semitic content to proliferate.
