Musk insults X's renegade advertising customers
Tech billionaire Elon Musk has verbally attacked renegade advertising customers of his online platform X during a public appearance. "If someone tries to blackmail me with ads? Blackmail me with money? Go fuck yourself!", Musk scolded on stage at a New York Times conference.
He specifically mentioned Disney boss Bob Iger. A boycott by advertisers would kill X (formerly Twitter), he said.
When asked whether, as the richest person in the world, he would keep the platform alive in the long term, Musk seemed to imply that he would accept X's financial failure. However, the advertisers who pulled their ads would then have to explain themselves to the public, he said.
Various large companies had stopped advertising on X after Musk described as "actual truth" a post that said, among other things, that Jewish organizations spread hatred against white people. A day later, hate speech researchers demonstrated in a report how ads from well-known brands were placed on X alongside Nazi posts.
Musk admits mistakes
Following the weeks of controversy, Musk admitted for the first time that his "truth" post had been a mistake and explained that his views had been misunderstood. He had merely wanted to say to Jewish organizations that it was not wise to support radical Islamists who wanted their annihilation.
Musk's X post was condemned by the White House, among others, and met with approval in anti-Semitic circles. He himself repeatedly emphasized afterwards that he was not anti-Semitic. Musk was received in Israel on Monday. Among other things, he visited a kibbutz attacked by the Islamist Hamas on October 7 with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Musk emphasized that the visit had nothing to do with the controversy surrounding his X-contribution.
- Elon Musk recently faced backlash from advertisers on his platform X, formerly known as Twitter, after making controversial statements about Jewish organizations on the site, prompting concerns about the placement of their ads alongside hate speech.
- In response to the criticism, Elon Musk, who is also the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, argued on Twitter that Disney CEO Bob Iger and other big corporations would need to explain their decision to pull ads from X to the public if they chose to boycott the platform, implying potential consequences for their brands' reputations.
- Amidst the uproar, tech mogul Elon Musk admitted on Twitter that his initial "truth" post, which many deemed offensive and anti-Semitic, was a mistake and attempted to clarify his intentions to distinguish between supporting radical Islamic groups and harboring any anti-Semitic views.
Source: www.dpa.com
