Elon Musk pushed back on advertisers boycotting X over antisemitism and other hate speech on the platform formerly known as Twitter during the 2023 DealBook Summit in New York on Wednesday.
What he’s saying: “If somebody’s gonna try to blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go f**k yourself.” Musk said. “Don’t advertise.”
From the NYT reporting
lol, yeah, sure.
The word he’s looking for is “thank.” As in I’d like to thank the brands not advertising on Twitter. Not just the ones that withdrew their current ad campaigns, but also and especially the brands that never advertised there. I’m glad he’s documenting them because I can’t be arsed to keep a list.
This statement is the strongest evidence I’ve seen so far that he actually doesn’t know what he’s doing. Anyone who was self-aware, anyone who didn’t live in a double-hulled iron-clad bubble would certainly know that we are out here laughing at and blaming him. Not the brands.
If this isn’t a sincere proof of his ignorance, then who is this statement even for? The brands don’t believe this, and wouldn’t care if they did. The public no longer has any horse in this race. He’s talking to himself with this statement, and that’s why it’s clear that he truly has no idea what he’s doing.