Not since the valiant Ukrainian soldiers on Snake Island swore at a Russian warship, has the phrase “go fuck yourself” reverberated so loudly around the world.
This time, it was Twitter/X.com owner Elon Musk saying it – not to a warship that threatened to bomb the soldiers (who it turns out were taken hostage) – but to the source of his business’s revenue. As a way to draw attention to himself and make him the centre of that attention – like going to Israel to the site of a massacre, but not apologising for an antisemitic tweet – it has worked.
But as a strategy to keep the advertisers (quite) literally on board, it has spectacularly failed.
One explosive rant later…
Speaking at a New York Times’ DealBook conference, Musk was asked by host Andrew Ross Sorkin about the advertising “pause” after his tweet agreeing with an antisemitic conspiracy theory as “the actual truth”.
Musk responded: “Don’t advertise”.
Sorkin asks bemusedly: “You don’t want them to advertise?”
To which the billionaire lets rip with the final nail in the Twitter coffin: “If somebody’s going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money? Go fuck yourself,” he said. “Go. Fuck. Yourself. Is that clear?”
Very clear. That’s the end of Twitter.
Musk’s “actual truth” tweet was the moment this endgame began. There are many things that the world will forgive the rich and famous for. Antisemitism is not one of them. The list of big-name firms who have “paused” their advertising includes Apple, Comcast/NBCUniversal, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, IBM, Paramount Global, Lionsgate and the European Commission.
After his tirade, Musk waved at the audience, which included Disney CEO Bob Iger, and said “Hey, Bob”.
A surprised Sorkin looked on as Musk added: “What this advertising boycott is going to do is kill the company. And the whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company, and we will document it in great detail.”
Musk’s unhinged shouting fit on that New York stage is another sad example of his victim blaming. He has sued hate-speech groups, Media Matters, the Center for Countering Digital Hate and the Anti-Defamation League which have pointed out how misinformation and hate speech has proliferated since Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion last October. In a little over a year, instead of rescuing the “digital town square” he has ruined it.
Read More: Elon Musk killed Twitter. He just doesn’t know it yet
Displaying an incredible lack of self-awareness, Musk blames these organisations for advertisers fleeing, not the lack of content moderation in the case of Media Matters, pointing out that Nazi-praising tweets appeared next to Apple, IBM and Oracle adverts.
About the only rational moment at the DealBook conference was Musk admitting his
“actual truth” tweet was “foolish” and he apologised for it.
That’s not going to help X.com’s finances with $75 million in advertising at risk in the final quarter of the year, the New York Times reported that X may lose up to from the advertiser exodus.
For the second time in two weeks, CEO Linda Yaccarino is left picking up the pieces from Musk’s self-destruction of Twitter.