After companies like Apple and Disney pulled advertising, Elon Musk says it will be the advertisers fault if X goes under, suggesting users will boycott them in turn.
X in trouble after advertising boycott
After Elon Musk promoted antisemitic content via his personal account and reports of advertisements appearing next to other antisemitic content, Apple and other advertisers boycotted X. Since this inciting incident, more and more official accounts and advertisers have removed their presence from X, at least temporarily.
Musk was asked about this situation during the DealBook Summit, which is hosted by The New York Times. His response was a pointed comment to the advertisers that left -- "Go f--- yourself."
He believes that advertisers left to "blackmail" him, to control his speech.
"The whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company and we will document it in great detail," Musk said. "I have no problem being hated. Hate away."
He implied that X users will join him in blaming advertisers like Apple, Disney, and others if X fails as a platform. These statements were made during a live interview where Disney CEO Bob Iger was present, with Musk pausing after his comments at one point to say "Hi Bob."
Musk remarked that the post he made on X that appeared to be antisemitic actually wasn't. That his attempts to clarify were ignored, and he's so far from being antisemitic that he's philosemitic.
Despite his acidic remarks, Musk uses an iPhone and said on stage that he just bought a new one. He stated that he's not interested in building an iPhone competitor, instead that the future is Neuralink.
X continues to exist despite a year of tumult and confusion on the platform. Time will tell if this latest advertiser exodus will be enough to finally end the platform formally known as Twitter.