“Go f— yourself,” Elon Musk tells companies that pull ads from X, after anti-Semitic posts surfaced, which he himself supported.
Speaking at the DealBook 2023 financial conference in New York on Wednesday, Elon Musk, owner of the social networking platform X (formerly Twitter), showed his anger at companies that decide to withdraw their ads from the platform due to the presence of anti-Semitic posts .
Many companies have cut off their advertising partnerships with X, as they have noticed that after the acquisition of the platform by the entrepreneur, there is intense toxicity and racist content with Musk himself supporting this development. In fact, in recent weeks, Musk has promoted and verbally supported some posts that according to the White House were “anti-Semitic and racist.”
Elon Musk acknowledged that it was his mistake, saying that these tweets were “one of the stupidest if not the stupidest thing he has ever done on the platform. I regret that tweet or post,” he added.
However, these posts by Musk on the social networking platform, among others, led major companies, such as Disney, Apple, Paramount, NBCUniversal and others to withdraw their ads from the X platform.
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Elon Musk to advertisers leaving X: “Go f— yourself”
Despite his self-criticism for these inappropriate posts, Elon Musk argued that the companies' decision to pull the ads is blackmail.
" If someone tries to blackmail me with ads? Blackmail me with money? Go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? Hi Bob if you're here in the audience, " the angry billionaire said , addressing Disney CEO Robert Iger
He also implied that his fans would boycott these advertisers. “The whole world will know that these advertisers killed the company and we will document it in great detail,” Musk threatened.
We will definitely remember this outburst from Musk for a long time and to be honest, companies probably won't take it too kindly. Which company would want to return to advertising on the platform after this?
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Musk's anger may indicate his desperation, as the loss of advertising revenue due to the companies' removal has serious financial consequences for X. Musk himself said that with this move, the companies are killing the platform.
Furthermore, the removal of companies negatively affects the image and prestige of X. Companies usually choose to cooperate with platforms that have a good reputation and credibility. The withdrawal of companies due to anti-Semitic publications can create negative impressions of X and cause a loss of trust from its audience.
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Finally, the high profile that the issue of anti-Semitic posts and the withdrawal of advertisers has received may cause more reactions and confrontations from the public and society in general. This may lead to a loss of social acceptance and have negative effects on the survival and success of X.
