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Elon Musk regrets controversial post, won't bow to advertiser 'blackmail'

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Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="US tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, owner of Tesla, SpaceX and X, attends a conversation event with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (unseen) in central London, Britain, 02 November 2023. The conversation will be streamed on X (formerly Twitter) and follows the two-day AI Safety Summit that was held at Bletchley Park. EPA-EFE/TOLGA AKMEN / POOL" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/overseas/11/30/elon-musk-epa-11302023.jpg"/><figcaption>US tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, owner of Tesla, SpaceX and X, attends a conversation event with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (unseen) in central London, Britain, 02 November 2023. The conversation will be streamed on X (formerly Twitter) and follows the two-day AI Safety Summit that was held at Bletchley Park. <em>EPA-EFE/TOLGA AKMEN / POOL</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>NEW YORK - Elon Musk apologized Wednesday for endorsing a social media post widely seen as anti-Semitic, but accused advertisers who are turning away from his social media platform X of &quot;blackmail&quot; and said anyone who does so can &quot;go fuck yourself.&quot;</p><p>The remark before corporate executives at the New York Times&#x27; Dealbook conference drew a shocked silence.</p><p>Earlier, Musk had apologized for what he called &quot;literally the worst and dumbest post that I&#x27;ve ever done.&quot;</p><p>In a comment on X, formerly Twitter, Musk on November 15 called a post &quot;the actual truth&quot; that said Jewish communities advocated a &quot;dialectical hatred against whites,&quot; which was criticized as echoing longtime conspiracy theory among White supremacists.</p><p>The statement prompted a flood of departures from X of major advertisers, including Apple, Disney, Comcast and IBM who criticized Musk for anti-semitism.</p><p>&quot;I&#x27;m sorry for that tweet or post,&quot; Musk said Wednesday. &quot;It was foolish of me.&quot;</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/11/17/23/ibm-pulls-ads-from-elon-musks-x-over-pro-nazi-posts">IBM pulls ads from Elon Musk&#x27;s X over pro-Nazi posts</a></li></ul><p>He told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin that his post had been misinterpreted and that he had sought to clarify the remark in subsequent posts to the thread.</p><p>But Musk also said he wouldn&#x27;t be beholden to pressure from advertisers.</p><p>&quot;If somebody&#x27;s gonna try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money?&quot; Musk said. &quot;Go fuck yourself.&quot;</p><p>But the billionaire acknowledged that there were business implications to the advertiser actions.</p><p>&quot;If the company fails... it will fail because of an advertiser boycott&quot; Musk said. &quot;And that will be what will bankrupt the company.&quot;</p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2885684" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div><p>Musk, who met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to Israel earlier this week, insisted in the interview that he holds no discrimination against Jews, calling himself &quot;philo-Semitic,&quot; or an admirer of Judaism.</p><p>During the interview, Musk wore a necklace given to him by a parent of an Israeli hostage taken in the Hamas attack on October 7. The necklace reads, &quot;Bring Them Home.&quot;</p><p>Musk told Sorkin that the Israel trip had been planned earlier and was not an &quot;apology tour&quot; related to the controversial tweet.</p><div><strong>jmb/tjj/des</strong></div><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2875930" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

Elon Musk apologized Wednesday for endorsing a social media post widely seen as anti-Semitic, but accused advertisers who are turning away from his social media platform X of 'blackmail.'