Owner of X (formerly Twitter), and one of the richest men on the planet, Elon Musk, famous for controversial statements, has told big advertisers to not blackmail him with money, and, “go f* yourself.”
The billionaire tycoon of Tesla was invited to the DealBook Summit in New York on Wednesday where he was asked about recent controversial tweets and if he would like to apologize for remarks widely termed as anti-semitic. To this Musk instantly replied, “If somebody’s gonna try to blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go f*** yourself. Go. F**. Yourself. Is that clear?” Musk singled out Disney CEO Bob Iger in the audience, saying “Hi Bob!”
.@elonmusk to corporations pulling ads from X:
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) November 29, 2023
"Don't advertise. If someone is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is." pic.twitter.com/GuhIHWjei9
He told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin, “I have no problem being hated. Hate away.”
He also implied that his fans would boycott those advertisers in kind. “The whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company and we will document it in great detail,” Musk threatened.
Musk’s inflammatory posts on the social media platform, among other things, have led large advertisers, including Disney, Apple, and many others, to suspend campaigns there and drove some famous users to abandon the platform.
The contents of the tweet promoted the conspiracy theory that white people in the West are being “replaced” through immigration from the Global South with the help of progressive Jews – “the actual truth”.
However, in the recent talk, he called those tweets, “one of the most foolish if not the most foolish thing I’ve ever done on the platform,” he said, adding that he was sorry for the tweet.
Elon went to Israel and met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Herzog earlier in the week. “It was jarring to see the scene of the massacre,” said Musk later in an X Spaces conversation with Netanyahu, adding Israel has “no choice” but to eliminate Hamas.
The tour took place after one of his tweets, dubbed anti-semitic by critics, went viral on social media. Musk reached an agreement with Israel “in principle” that internet access to Gaza may be provided through Starlink, but only using units operated by Israel and with the approval of the Israeli Ministry of Communications.
