Elon Musk tells advertisers who pull dollars from X: ‘Go f—k yourself’

Elon Musk had choice words for the many advertising executives that have pulled dollars from X in recent weeks: “Go f—k yourself.”

The Bay Area tech executive, who runs Tesla and SpaceX and owns X, formerly known as Twitter, made the remark Wednesday at The New York Times’ DealBook conference. Advertising freezes have hit the social media platform after Musk endorsed an antimsemitic post on X and the watchdog group Media Matters published a report saying that ads from blue-chip companies were appearing next to pro-Nazi posts.

Musk has since sued Media Matters, alleging that the group maliciously disparaged his company with its report, but his harshest words Wednesday were for the companies who have stripped X, headquartered in San Francisco, of its main revenue source. Apple, IBM, Disney, Airbnb, Amazon, Coca-Cola and Microsoft are among the companies that have paused or may be considering pausing ads, the New York Times reported last week.

Andrew Ross Sorkin, the reporter interviewing Musk, was asking a question about Musk apologizing to advertisers when the billionaire interrupted.

“I hope they stop. Don’t advertise,” Musk said.

“You don’t want them to advertise?” Sorkin replied. Musk said, “No.” Sorkin asked Musk what he meant.

“If someone’s going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail with me with money? Go f—k yourself,” the richest man in the world said. Sorkin, seeming lost for words, uttered a single, “But,” before Musk lifted his arms up to stress the point again, “Go. F—k. Yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.”

Then Musk smiled and waved, saying, “Hey, Bob, if you’re in the audience” — a reference to Disney CEO Bob Iger. 

Iger had explained his company’s decision to pull its advertisements from X earlier in the conference Wednesday, Deadline reported, saying, “We know Elon is larger than life in many respects, and that his name is very much tied to the companies he either founded or he owns, whether it’s Tesla or SpaceX, or now X.

“And by him taking the position that he took in quite a public manner, we just felt that the association with that position and Elon Musk and X was not necessarily a positive one for us,” Iger said, per Deadline.

Musk admitted in the DealBook interview that his post endorsing the antisemitic conspiracy theory had been “foolish,” but avoided taking blame for the advertisers’ boycott.

“What this advertising boycott is going to do, is it’s going to kill the company,” Musk said, “and the whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company, everyone will document it in great detail.”

Sorkin pointed out that the advertisers would argue Musk killed the company by saying inappropriate things and making it uncomfortable for advertisers.

“And let’s see how Earth responds to that,” Musk replied. “We’ll both make our cases, and we’ll see what the outcome is.”

The boycott, he said, “will be what bankrupts the company, and that is what everybody on Earth will know.”

Hear of anything happening at X or another tech company? Contact tech reporter Stephen Council securely at [email protected] or on Signal at 628-204-5452.