Proactive Investors - Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur and owner of social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), swore in an interview on Wednesday at advertisers who left the platform over antisemitic content, according to Reuters.
While he was interviewed at the New York DealBook Summit yesterday, Musk first apologised for a tweet he published on November 15, in which he had agreed with an antisemitic post.
Later in the interview, he accused advertisers who left the platform due to a rise in hateful content against Jewish people of “blackmail”.
The New York Times reported that the loss of advertisers could cost his social media platform US$75 million, more than the US$11 million estimated by X, following the backlash over a rise in antisemitism on the platform.
Major advertisers that have withdrawn from the platform include Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), IBM (NYSE:IBM), Sony (NYSE:SONY), Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) and Paramount (NYSE:PGRE), which alone accounted for 7% of ad sales, according to a report by Sensor Tower.
The total number of advertisers that have exited X could be as many as 100, the New York Times reported, though that same number again are reportedly at risk of freezing their ads.
Disney’s Chief Executive Robert Iger has also withdrawn ads from the platform, describing the relationship with X yesterday since Musk joined as “not a positive one”.
"If somebody's gonna try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money? Go fuck yourself," Musk said yesterday, according to the Reuters report.
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