SHOCKING! Elon Musk uses expletives, calls advertisers shunning X blackmailers

Speaking at the DealBook Summit, Elon Musk said that advertisers who were leaving X were blackmailing him with money. He shockingly used expletives, asking them to stop advertising.

Elon Musk told advertisers who pulled ads on X to stop advertising, using expletives. However, he also apologized for his seemingly antisemitic post and said it was not his intention. (Getty Images via AFP)

Elon Musk, speaking at the New York Times' DealBook Summit, gave a shocking declaration to advertisers that have stopped showing ads on X (formerly Twitter) and are leaving the platform, telling them to stop advertising and that they were blackmailing the X owner “with their money”. Musk's defiance also came without any restraints as he used expletives multiple times in the conversation telling brands responsible for boycotting the platform such as IBM, Disney, Comcast, and others to go away and that people will be the judge if X shuts down due to advertisers' money.

As per a video by CNBC Television's YouTube channel which posted the entire exchange, the billionaire entrepreneur was asked by the interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin, financial columnist at the New York Times about the recent antisemitic posts on X and whether the company can survive advertisers' boycott. Musk said, “I hope they stop. Don't advertise”.

When a confused Sorkin asked the X owner to explain what he meant, given that he previously apologized for his posts, Musk said, “If somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go f… yourself. Go f… yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.”

Elon Musk tells brands leaving X to stop advertising

Musk also singled out Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney, who was also an invitee to the event and had discussed not wanting his company to be associated with X earlier on stage. He said, “Hey Bob, if you're in the audience”, indicating the previous message was for him as well.

The strange conversation continued with Sorkin asking Musk how he felt about the economics of X, and whether he had a sustainable alternative if the platform intended to shift away from advertising. Musk responded, “What this advertising boycott is gonna do is it's gonna kill the company. And the whole world is going to know that the advertisers killed the company. Everyone will document it in great detail…That is what everybody on Earth will know. We'll be gone, and it'll be gone because of an advertiser boycott”.

Even when sounding defiant, Musk apologized for the antisemitic post and said, “I should in retrospect should not have replied to that one person…Essentially I handed a loaded gun to those who hate me, and arguably to those are antisemitic, and for that I'm quite sorry. That was not my intention”.

According to a report by the NYT, more than 100 brands have paused ads on X since the antisemitism episode and the company is at risk of losing $75 million by the end of the year”.