EBN- The world’s wealthiest person, Elon Musk, launched a fierce attack at advertisers that have left X, warning they will kill the social media platform.
At an event in New York, he accused companies that have joined an ad boycott of the site formerly known as Twitter of trying to blackmail him.
“If somebody’s going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money? Go f— yourself. Don’t advertise,” Musk said during an interview at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit.
“What it’s going to do is it’s going to kill the company, and the whole world will know the advertisers killed the company,” Elon Musk added.
Some firms have paused advertising on X amid concerns over antisemitism, including a post from Mr Musk himself.
The Tesla and SpaceX boss apologised on Wednesday for that post, saying it might be the “dumbest” thing he has ever shared online.
But it was his response to a question about an advertising boycott by companies including Disney, Apple and Comcast that caused a stir at the gathering of leaders from the worlds of business, politics and culture.
The exodus of advertisers from X, formerly known as Twitter, has increased in the past couple of weeks after Musk appeared to endorse an antisemitic tweet. Musk apologised for that on Wednesday, saying it was the “worst and dumbest post I’ve ever done.”
The company has reportedly lost about 60% of its advertisers over the past year — Musk took over 13 months ago — and it still owes billions in debt.
