Tesla CEO and X CTO Elon Musk had a few fiery words for companies like Disney, that decided to pull their advertising from his social media platform in the wake of an inflammatory post. Asked about his reaction to the response, he told the companies to “f*ck off.”
Musk was speaking to interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin at the 2023 DealBook Summit in New York on Wednesday, where he apologized for the post. The talk came shortly after Musk returned from a trip to Israel.
Asked if the visit was part of an “apology tour” for writing “you have said the actual truth” in response to an antisemitic post, which prompted companies to pull their ads from X, Musk smirked and said, “I hope they stop [advertising]. Don’t advertise.”
More: Tesla Investors Demand Action After Elon Musk’s Antisemitic Social Media Post
Asked for clarification, Musk added, “If somebody’s going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money? Go f*ck yourself.” After a moment of stunned silence, he reiterated. “Go f*ck yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.”
Sorkin pressed on, asking about how Musk’s position would impact the company economically. The X owner responded that the advertisers were to blame for any fallout, not him.
“What this advertising boycott is going to do, is it’s going to kill the company,” said Musk. “And the whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company, and we will document it in great detail.”
Asked how he would respond to people who said that the company’s failure was his fault, he said that the public would ultimately be the judge of that. X CEO Linda Yaccarino responded to Musk’s words on the platform shortly after.
“Here’s my perspective when it comes to advertising: X is standing at a unique and amazing intersection of Free Speech and Main Street — and the X community is powerful and is here to welcome you,” she said. “To our partners who believe in our meaningful work — Thank You.”
Shortly before the summit, Musk was already starting to show signs of adopting an aggressive position. Responding to a post about a report claiming that Instagram’s Reels product was showing sexual content to teens, and asking whether companies would pull their ads on the platform, Musk wrote “What say you, big brands?”
However, his defiant position comes as investors, not just advertisers, have demanded that the boards of his companies provide consequences for his actions. Following the post that Musk apologized for, one Tesla investor accused him of working against the company’s best interest. Whether the apology will placate investors or his position that advertisers can leave will scare them away, remains to be seen.