Marketing & sales

Musk Directs Expletive to Fleeing Advertisers

NOV 30 2023·Updated FEB 3 2024

Story

Image credit: UK Government/Flickr [via Wikimedia Commons]

The Facts

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who also owns X (formerly Twitter), has reportedly used an expletive to blow off advertisers who've left X over an alleged increase in antisemitic content on the social media platform.
ap
In an interview with the New York Times, Musk said that he refused to let companies “blackmail” him by pulling their ads and used an expletive to tell them they’re not missed and shouldn’t attempt to return to X.
Reuters
Businesses, including Disney and Apple, have left X since Musk appeared to endorse a highly controversial post claiming that the Jewish community pushes "hatred against Whites" earlier this month, replying, "You have said the actual truth." The billionaire later claimed he was referring to the Anti-Defamation League, a leading Jewish civil rights organization.
FOX News
Lamenting that the "advertising boycott is going to" kill X, Musk apologized for the controversial post on Wednesday, calling it "the worst and dumbest" he's ever done.
BBC News
Meanwhile, X CEO Linda Yaccarino defended Musk's "explicit point of view" as well as X's "information independence" and thanked "partners" for believing in X's "powerful" community.
Verge
Musk's comments and subsequent apology came in the same week he traveled to Israel and offered to help Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "deradicalize" and "rebuild" Gaza.
NBC

Sources Split

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RIGHT

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The Spin

Narrative A

Musk made a mistake liking the antisemitic post, but it's not representative of his views as a whole, and one error shouldn't lead to X's demise. He has the support of several high-profile Jewish figures, and the reaction of the companies pulling their advertising is just virtue signaling to appease overreacting elements of the radical left who are predisposed to disliking Musk and are dedicated to cancel culture.

Daily Wire

Narrative B

Though he has rightly apologized for the abhorrent post, this behavior — which stretches beyond his agreement with one X post endorsing replacement theory — is becoming a pattern. He has spread other conspiracy theories about George Soros funding various projects allegedly aimed at ending Western civilization. Even in his expletive-filled interview, he accused prominent Jewish people of funding pro-Hamas demonstrations. Advertisers are right to distance themselves from this type of rhetoric.

MS Now