Musk made the comments during an interview at The New York Times DealBook Summit
Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, expressed strong criticism for advertisers who are abandoning the X platform, bluntly stating, “Go f— yourself” during an interview at The New York Times DealBook Summit. Musk discussed the ongoing advertiser boycott, predicting that it would lead to the demise of the platform and emphasized that the world would attribute the company’s downfall to these advertisers.
In response to Disney CEO Bob Iger, who mentioned Disney’s withdrawal of advertising from the platform, Musk delivered an uncompromising response, discouraging advertisers and expressing his indifference to attempts at financial coercion. Musk apologized during the interview for endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory on X, which contributed to the advertiser exodus.
These comments followed Musk’s recent visit to Israel, where he toured a kibbutz targeted by Hamas militants and engaged in discussions with top leaders. Accusations of tolerating antisemitic content on X have been directed at Musk by organizations like the Anti-Defamation League, gaining attention amid increased scrutiny of X content during the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The platform, formerly known as Twitter, faced a significant loss of advertisers, including major brands like Disney and IBM, after a report by Media Matters revealed their ads appearing alongside pro-Nazi and White nationalist content. In response, X filed a lawsuit, alleging that the report was manufactured by the advocacy group to deliberately drive advertisers away and destroy X Corp.