With a dubious achievement, Bob Iger earned the enmity of the richest person in the world: Elon Musk. The billionaire was angry at Disney and its CEO after the company pulled its advertising spending from Musk's X (the social media platform formerly called Twitter).
The acrimony stemmed from Musk's post on X on November 15: “You told the actual truth,” in response to someone who invoked the white nationalist Great Replacement conspiracy theory that Jewish communities “propagate exactly the kind of dialectical anti-white hatred they claim to want.” “That people stop using it against them.”
At the New York Times DealBook conference last month, Iger was asked about Musk's comment. “I have a lot of respect for Elon and what he has accomplished,” Iger said. Given “the situation [Musk] Disney concluded that the association with Musk and X/Twitter was “not necessarily positive for us.”
Later that day at the same conference, Musk sent a message to Iger and others who had stopped ad spending on X: “Screw you. Go. Crap. Himself. Is that clear?” Musk said. He called Iger over and said, “Hey Bob, if you're in the audience, that's how I feel – don't advertise.”
Musk wasn't done smoking yet. Earlier this month, Musk cited in a post on (A Meta spokesperson said that the company uses “sophisticated technology” and employs child safety experts to share information and tools with other companies and law enforcement agencies, “including state attorneys general, to help to help eradicate predators.”) Musk accused Disney of being a double standard in not pulling advertising from meta.
“Bob Eiger [sic] thinks it's cool to advertise alongside child exploitation material. “A real stand-up guy,” Musk wrote misspelled Iger's name in a post on X. the tech mogul said in one Follow-up post about Iger: “He should be fired immediately. “Walt Disney is turning in his grave over what Bob did to his company.” Disney declined to comment on Musk’s comments.
Meanwhile, Tesla has reportedly removed the Disney+ streaming app from its electric vehicles, in an apparent retaliation move by Musk.