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Elon Musk Launches Profane Attack on X Advertisers
(CTN News) – Elon Musk has warned that advertisers who have abandoned X will destroy the social networking site in a profanity-laced tirade.
During a New York event, he said that businesses that had joined the ad boycott of what was once known as Twitter were attempting to blackmail him.
“Go [expletive] yourself,” the billionaire remarked during an interview.
A number of companies, including Elon Musk’s own company, have pulled ads from X due to worries about antisemitism.
On Wednesday, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX apologized for the message, calling it possibly the “dumbest” thing he has ever uploaded on the internet.
His answer to a question concerning an advertising boycott by Disney, Apple, and Comcast was the one that sparked a stir among the commercial, political, and cultural heavyweights gathered there.
“I would prefer it if they didn’t advertise,” Elon Musk stated during the DealBook Summit hosted by the New York Times.
“Go [expletive] yourself if you’re going to use advertising or money to blackmail me.
Go. [Cuss word]. You alone. Do you understand? Bob, that is my sentiment if you happen to be in the audience.
Disney CEO Bob Iger spoke at the conference earlier in the day, so it seems he was referring to him.
Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, who is facing charges related to attempting to get advertisers back to the site, was there in the room with Elon Musk.
Advertising might be the demise of X, according to Elon Musk.
“What this advertising boycott is going to do is it’s going to kill the company,” stated the CEO.
“The whole world will know those advertisers killed the company, and we will document it in great detail,” he said.
“X is standing at a unique and amazing intersection of Free Speech and Main Street — and the X community is powerful and is here to welcome you,” Ms. Yaccarino added to her repost of what she called his “candid interview,” which she had previously uploaded.
Following his recent appearance as a supporter of an antisemitic conspiracy theory, Elon Musk has been visiting Israel.
“I’m sorry for that tweet… it might be literally the worst and dumbest post that I’ve ever done,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
However, the boycott isn’t limited to that specific post.
A lot of marketers had already made up their minds to go elsewhere.
At least “almost all of them [advertisers] have either come back or they’re going to come back,” Elon Musk stated in an April interview with the BBC.
Posting on X three months later, he admitted that ad revenue had dropped 50%.
Before the liberal pressure organization, Media Matters published a report claiming to have discovered proof that some advertisements had been put next to Nazi propaganda, such was the case.
In its study, the organization “undermined freedom of speech and misled advertisers” by “misrepresenting the real user experience of X,” according to X. Media Matters is being sued by X.
It’s difficult to understand how Elon Musk’s remarks can entice advertisers to return. Their funding is crucial to the company’s operations.
Now that X is a private firm, it no longer releases quarterly reports, therefore we don’t know what percentage of its income comes from ads.
However, advertising accounted for about 90% of Twitter’s revenue prior to Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company.
