'Go F*ck Yourself': As Advertisers Exit X, Elon Musk Responds With Profanities

Advertisers are fleeing Elon Musk's X (formerly known as Twitter) after he endorsed an antisemitic post and spooked companies like Apple. In addition, reports of increased hate speech on the platform are scaring advertisers away.

Reuters

What did Musk say?

In a video interview, Musk hit out at advertisers with profanities. "Don¡¯t advertise," Musk said on Wednesday during an on-stage interview in New York. "If someone¡¯s going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go f*ck yourself," he said.

Also read: As Advertisers Pull Out, Elon Musk's X Appears To Be In Great Trouble

Watch my conversation with @ElonMusk: https://t.co/YedkELVhFn

¡ª Andrew Ross Sorkin (@andrewrsorkin) November 29, 2023

Musk was speaking at The New York Times' DealBook Summit and just moments before Musk slammed advertisers, he expressed some remorse over his endorsement of an antisemitic post on X. He said that it was perhaps his worst post in history that included many "foolish" ones, including a 2018 tweet that cost him $40 million in fines from the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

However, the apology didn't last for long. During the interview, he said "f*ck you" multiple times and added the words "hey, Bob" at one point, referring to Robert Iger, the chief executive officer of Walt Disney, which pulled adds from X.

Reuters

Why are advertisers pulling out of X?

Other big companies like tech giants Apple and IBM, along with Coca-Cola have removed paid advertisements from X in a trend that could cost the company up to $75 million in revenue losses.

Non-profit Media Matters also published a report that highlighted how ads from major companies were shown alongside pro-Nazi posts. Musk responded by filing a lawsuit against the organisation. It went further downhill when Musk agreed with an antisemitic tweet accusing Jewish people of "hatred against whites."

Also read: Elon Musk Offers $1 Billion To Wikipedia If It Changes Name To 'Dickipedia'

Unsplash

On Wednesday, Musk acknowledged how this exodus could negatively affect X. "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."

Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X, described Musk's interview as "wide ranging and candid" and pitched X to advertisers. "X is standing at a unique and amazing intersection of Free Speech and Main Street ¨C and the X community is powerful and is here to welcome you," she wrote on X.

Today @elonmusk gave a wide ranging and candid interview at @dealbook 2023. He also offered an apology, an explanation and an explicit point of view about our position. X is enabling an information independence that's uncomfortable for some people. We're a platform that allows¡­ https://t.co/PSmSKRkJSq

¡ª Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) November 30, 2023

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