The Blubber

"If someone is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. That's how I feel. Don't advertise," Elon Musk tells Andrew Ross Sorkin at the Dealbook Summit.


Speaking at the 2023 DealBook Summit in New York on Wednesday, Elon Musk, the proprietor of social media platform X (previously Twitter), dismissed concerns raised by advertisers departing the platform due to antisemitic posts he shared.

"If somebody's going to try to blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go f--- yourself. Go. F---. Yourself. Is that clear?" Musk specifically addressed Disney CEO Bob Iger in the audience, saying, "Hi Bob!"

He also suggested that his supporters might reciprocate by boycotting those advertisers. Musk threatened, "The whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company, and we will document it in great detail."

During the interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin, Musk stated, "I have no problem being hated. Hate away."

In recent weeks, Musk has promoted and, at times, verbally endorsed content characterized by the White House as "antisemitic and racist hate" on X, formerly Twitter, the social media platform he owns and serves as Chief Technology Officer.

He referred to those tweets as "one of the most foolish if not the most foolish thing I've ever done on the platform." Musk added, "I'm sorry for that tweet or post."

Musk's provocative posts on the social media platform, among other things, prompted major advertisers, including Disney, Apple, and others, to halt campaigns there. They also led some prominent users to abandon the platform, including Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.

Musk, also the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has denied being antisemitic and emphasized that on X, "Clear calls for extreme violence are against our terms of service and will result in suspension."

This week, he traveled to Israel, where he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. When Netanyahu expressed a desire to "deradicalize" and "rebuild" Gaza, Musk offered assistance. Musk clarified during the interview that his visit to Israel was planned before his controversial tweets and was not part of an "apology tour."

Earlier on Wednesday, the UAW initiated campaigns targeting Tesla and 12 other automakers in the U.S. Sorkin questioned Musk about the impact on his EV business.

Musk expressed generally negative views about unions, stating that they create a "lords and peasants" atmosphere at companies and "naturally try to create negativity," pitting workers against management.

He commented, "Many people at Tesla have moved up from working on the line to being in senior management, and there's no lords and peasants — everyone eats at the same table."

Musk added, "If Tesla gets unionized, it will be because we deserve it and we failed in some way."