The boycott of the social network”.
Several major American companies, including Apple, cable operator Comcast and Disney, stopped airing their commercials on X after Elon Musk spread an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory on the site.
They joined other advertisers who had already left the platform after media watchdog Media Matters found that prominent brand advertising had appeared on a neo-Nazi account.
“I’m sorry about this news,” Elon Musk said in a public interview at the “DealBook Summit” event organized by The New York Times for his publication, which was accused of anti-Semitism.
“It was stupid of me,” he continued. “Among the 30,000 (posts posted by the contractor), this is perhaps the worst and stupidest one I have ever posted.”
In this message, Elon Musk responded to a tweet in which he claimed that Jewish people were promoting “hatred against white people”: “You told the exact truth.”
However, the businessman expressed very harsh words towards the advertisers who placed their advertising on X, accusing them of “wanting to blackmail”. “Fuck you. Is that clear?”
Immediately after that sentence, Elon Musk pretended to greet (“Hi Bob!”) Disney CEO Bob Iger, whose group is among the affected companies and who had previously been interviewed at the same event in New York.
“I hope they will stop” buying advertising space on the social network, he announced. “Don’t advertise,” he told them.
“What will happen is that this boycott will destroy the company,” Elon Musk warned. “And the whole world will know that these advertisers destroyed the business.”
Although the company only recently launched paid plans, X relied almost entirely on advertising and was already in poor shape before this new controversy.
According to company policy, advertising revenue had already fallen 54% between September 2022 and August 2023.
On Wednesday, Elon Musk indicated that he would not put his hand in his pocket to prevent the demise of the company he bought in October 2022.
“If the company fails due to an advertising boycott, it will go bankrupt,” he insisted.