Elon Musk has a strange way of apologizing. The tycoon owner of the social network. But at the same time, realizing his mistake, he accused the advertisers who had withdrawn their advertising of “blackmail” and sharpened his tone to address them: “Fuck you,” he repeated twice, also specifically referring to Bob Iger , the head of Disney, one of those cutting advertising.
Musk’s language in a formal forum attended throughout the day by Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris; the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog; that of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, via video conference; The president of JP Morgan, Jamie Dimon, or precisely that of Disney, Bob Iger, among many others, surprised those present.
Advertising remains Twitter’s main source of revenue and the tycoon has implicitly called on users to boycott companies that decided to stop advertising on the social network following his anti-Semitic message. These companies include IBM, Apple, Disney, Sony, Warner, Paramount and Lionsgate.
Musk sparked outrage with his own tweets when he responded to a message from a user who accused Jews of hating white people and expressing indifference to anti-Semitism. The embassy subscribed to the replacement conspiracy theory that Jews are supporting “hordes of minorities” who are “flooding” the country to replace whites. This conspiracy theory was the same one that motivated the deadly Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in 2018. “You told the honest truth,” Musk tweeted.
This Wednesday in New York, the tycoon began defiantly when asked about this tweet: “I have no problem being hated,” he said. And he didn’t care whether people hated him, loved him or trusted him or not, because SpaceX makes the best rockets and Tesla makes the best cars.
However, he later admitted that this message was “one of the silliest” he had ever shared. “Looking back, I shouldn’t have replied to that particular message,” he added.
Whoa – “Fuck yourself,” Elon Musk says to Bob Iger and others who pull advertising from X
At this point, it’s almost like he’s watching the old Iron Man movies and doing the opposite impression of Tony Stark pic.twitter.com/csXxeLH2wG
– jd durkin (@jd_durkin) November 29, 2023
“I basically gave people who hate me a loaded gun,” said Musk, who complained that the media ignored his attempts to clarify the meaning of his message. Musk’s owner agreed to give Benjamin Netanyahu’s government the authority to authorize the use of connectivity provided by its Starlink satellite network in the Gaza Strip.
But after admitting his mistake with the message and apologizing, he took to task the advertisers who had decided to withdraw their advertising from the platform because they were on a social network where numerous anti-Semitic messages were published alongside his , didn’t feel comfortable own.
Iger recently explained Disney’s decision in the same forum. “I have a lot of respect for Elon and what he has accomplished,” he said. “When we took the position that he represented very publicly, we felt that the association with that position and Elon Musk and X was not necessarily positive for us,” the Disney boss added.
When asked what he thought about decisions like this, Musk replied: “Don’t advertise. Will someone try to blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Fuck you! Fuck you! Is that clear? “Hey Bob, if you’re in the audience.”
“This advertising boycott will destroy the company,” Musk said. “And the whole world will know that these advertisers destroyed the company,” he added, while among those present was Linda Yaccarino, the CEO he hired to improve relations with advertisers.
Follow all information Business And Business on Facebook and Xor in our weekly newsletter
The five-day agenda
The most important business quotes of the day, with the keys and context to understand their significance.
RECEIVE IT IN YOUR EMAIL