Elon Musk claims advertisers are trying to ‘blackmail’ him, says ‘Go f— yourself’

Speaking
at
the
2023
DealBook
Summit in
New
York
on
Wednesday,
Elon
Musk,
the
owner
of
social
media
site
X
(formerly
Twitter),
scoffed
at
advertisers
leaving
the
platform
because
of
antisemitic
posts
he
amplified
there.

“If
somebody’s
gonna
try
to
blackmail
me
with
advertising?
Blackmail
me
with
money?
Go
f—yourself.
Go.
F—.
Yourself.
Is
that
clear?”
Musk
singled
out


Disney
CEO
Bob
Iger
in
the
audience,
saying
“Hi
Bob!”

He
also
implied
that
his
fans
would
boycott
those
advertisers
in
kind.
“The
whole
world
will
know
that
those
advertisers
killed
the
company
and
we
will
document
it
in
great
detail,”
Musk
threatened.

He
also
told
interviewer
Andrew
Ross
Sorkin,
“I
have
no
problem
being
hated.
Hate
away.”

In
recent
weeks,
Musk
has
promoted
and
sometimes
verbally
endorsed
what
the

White
House
called
“antisemitic
and
racist
hate”
on
X,
formerly
Twitter,
the
social
media
platform
he
owns
and
runs
as
CTO.

He
called
those
tweets,
“one
of
the
most
foolish
if
not
the
most
foolish
thing
I’ve
ever
done
on
the
platform.”
“I’m
sorry
for
that
tweet
or
post,”
he
added.

Musk’s
inflammatory
posts
on
the
social
media
platform,
among
other
things,
have
led
large
advertisers,
including
Disney,


Apple,
and
many
others,
to
suspend
campaigns
there
and
drove
some
famous
users
to
abandon
the
platform,
including
Paris
Mayor

Anne
Hidalgo.

Musk,
who
is
also
the
CEO
of


Tesla
and
SpaceX,
has
denied
that
he
is
antisemitic,
and
said
that
on
X,
“Clear
calls
for
extreme
violence
are
against
our
terms
of
service
and
will
result
in
suspension.”

He
also
traveled
to
Israel
this
week,
where
he
met
and
spoke
with
Prime
Minister
Benjamin
Netanyahu.
When
Netanyahu
said
he
wanted
to
“deradicalize”
and
“rebuild”
Gaza,
Musk
offered
to
help.
Musk
told
Sorkin
on
stage
that
his
visit
to
Israel
was
planned
before
his
tweets,
and
were
not
part
of
an
“apology
tour.”

Previously,
Musk
had
said
he
wanted
to
bring
SpaceX
satellite
communications
service,
Starlink,
to
the
region
and
specifically
to
humanitarian
organizations
in
Gaza.

Musk’s
personal
account
on
X
currently
displays
a
follower
count
of
more
than
164
million
—
though
tech
blog
Mashable

reported
in
August
that
a
majority
of
Musk’s
listed
followers
appeared
to
be
inauthentic
or
inactive
accounts.

Earlier
on
Wednesday,
the

UAW
launched
campaigns
aimed
at
Tesla
and
12
other
automakers
in
the
U.S.
Sorkin
asked
Musk
what
that
means
for
his
EV
business.

Musk
espoused
generally
negative
views
about
unions
and
said
they
create
a
“lords
and
peasants”
atmosphere
at
companies,
and
“naturally
try
to
create
negativity,”
pitting
workers
against
management.

He
said,
“Many
people
at
Tesla
have
come
up,
gone
from
working
on
the
line
to
being
in
senior
management
and
there’s
no
lords
and
peasants
—
everyone
eats
at
the
same
table.”

He
added,
“If
Tesla
gets
unionized,
it
will
be
because
we
deserve
it
and
we
failed
in
some
way.”

At
one
point,
Sorkin
asked,
“Do
you
feel
like
anybody
has
leverage
over
you?”

Musk
replied,
“If
we
make
bad
products
that
people
don’t
want
to
use,
the
users
will
vote
with
their
resources
and
use
something
else.”
He
also
said
that
his
companies
are
overseen
by
regulators.
“SpaceX,
Starlink,
Tesla
–
are
overseen
by
cumulatively
by…a
few
hundred
regulators
because
we’re
in
55
countries,”
Musk
said.

Later,
Musk
said
that
he
complies
with
nearly
all
the
regulations
levied
upon
his
companies,
but
“once
in
awhile”
he
disagrees
with
a
regulation
and
would
object
to
it
and
disobey.
“I’m
incredibly
rule-following,”
he
claimed.

Sorkin
asked,
“How
do
you
think
about
the
leverage
that
the
Chinese
have
over
you?”
alluding
to
Tesla’s
factory
there
and
the
company’s
reliance
on
Chinese
consumers
for
a
significant
portion
of
sales.
Sorkin
added,
“Is
it
hypocritical
for
you
to
be
doing
business
in
China,
or
other
countries,
as
it
relates
to
X
and
other
things
that
don’t
follow
this
free
speech
path
that
you
have
espoused?”

The
CEO
replied,
“The
best
that
the
platform
can
do
is
adhere
to
the
laws
of
any
given
country.
Do
you
think
there’s
something
more
we
can
do
than
that?”

On
OpenAI
and
its
recent
boardroom
struggles,
Musk
said
he
had
talked
to
a
lot
of
people
but
had
not
found
out
what
precisely
led
to
the
recent
firing
and
then
re-hiring
of
CEO
Sam
Altman. He
also
said
he
has
“mixed
feelings”
about
Altman
personally,
hinting
that
he
feels
like
the
OpenAI
CEO
has
too
much
power.
“The
ring
of
power
can
corrupt.”

When
it
was
founded,
OpenAI’s
original
board included
both
Altman
and
Musk,
but
Musk

left
in
2018
after
poaching
a
star
engineer
from
the
company
to
run
Autopilot
software
engineering
at
Tesla.

Musk
also
said
that
he’s
worried
about
the
danger
of
AI
harming
humanity,
and
that
he
was
“having
trouble
sleeping
at
night”
because
of
it.