X owner Elon Musk has now made it blatantly clear how he feels about the advertisers who chose to leave the social media platform over a post he made that allegedly endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory.
"If somebody's gonna try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money? Go f*** yourself," Musk said. "Go f*** yourself. Is that clear?"
He made the contentious statement during an on-stage interview Wednesday at The New York Times DealBook Summit, where he addressed the decision by companies like Disney, Apple and IBM to pull their ads from X. Musk went on to accuse them of doing it to push their own self-righteous agenda and destroy the platform.
"What I care about is the reality of goodness, not the perception of it," he said. "And what I see all over the place is people who care about looking good while doing evil. F*** them."
Major companies pull advertisements from X over antisemitic posts
A report claimed IBM — along with several other major brands — had its ads appearing next to content that touted Adolf Hitler and Nazis.
The advertising exodus on X came after the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters published a report earlier this month saying ads from several major companies on X had appeared alongside content that touted Adolf Hitler and Nazis.
In the report, Media Matters also accused Musk of endorsing antisemitic conspiracy theories for responding to a tweet that claimed "Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them," to which Musk replied, "You have said the actual truth."
X has since filed a lawsuit against Media Matters, alleging it fabricated the report in order to "drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp."
Nonetheless, Musk did apologize for the tweet, calling it "one of the most foolish" things he's done on the platform.
"I'm sorry for that tweet or post," he said.
Musk meeting with Israeli leaders amid concerns over antisemitism on X
Elon Musk met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, touring a kibbutz that was attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7 and prompted Israel to declare war.
Musk's comments and apology Wednesday came two days after the billionaire met with several high-level Israeli diplomats to discuss the country's ongoing war against Hamas. Musk and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toured a kibbutz that was attacked by the terrorist group on Oct. 7 that prompted Israel to declare war. Musk also met with representatives of some of the hostages who were still being held by Hamas.
Monday's meeting wasn't Musk's first with the prime minister. The two also met in September, when Netanyahu traveled to California to discuss combating the spread of antisemitism on X.
At the time, the prime minister said that while he appreciates Musk's commitment to free speech, "I hope you find within the confines of the First Amendment the ability to stop not only antisemitism, or roll it back as best you can, but any collective of hatred of the people that antisemitism represents."
"Obviously I am against antisemitism," Musk responded. "I am against anything that promotes hate and conflict, and I am in favor of that in which that helps society and takes us to a better future."
