Elon Musk on advertisers blackmailing him over X boycott: 'go f**k yourself'

Elon Musk had some choice words to say about advertisers on X, where he said: "go f**k yourself" to anyone trying to blackmail him financially, in regards to the recent advertising boycott on X.

During the recent 2023 DealBook Summit in New York just hours ago, Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk sat down with journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin. The topic quickly turned to the recent advertiser boycott on X, where Elon said: "If somebody's gonna try to blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go f---yourself."He sat there for a minute while thinking, smirking, and then said in a more heightened voice:"Go. F---. Yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is."

He added: "That's how I feel... don't advertise" with people in the crowd laughing at Elon's response.

Sorkin asked: "How do you think of the economics of X if part of the underlying model, at least today, and maybe it needs to shift, maybe the answer is it needs to shift away from advertising. If you believe that this is the one part of your business where you will be beholden to those, who, uh, have this view... what do you do?"

Elon simply responds: "G... F... Y..." which I think is pretty clear, and translates to "go... f***... yourself," and then nods, and smiles at the interviewer.

The SpaceX and Tesla boss also called out Disney CEO Bob Iger, who was in the audience, where Musk said "Hi Bob!" while looking for him in the crowd.

• Read more: Apple stops advertising on X after Elon Musk's controversial post

The thing is... if advertisers did pull out of X and it caused the company to go out of business, it would be because of advertisers, and Elon will make sure every human being on this planet knows that. He added: "The whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company, and we will document it in great detail".

Sorkin: "I understand that, but there's a reality, too... right?"

Musk: "Yes, no, no..."

Sorkin: "I mean, Linda Yaccarino (X CEO) is here and she's gotta sell advertising"

Musk: "absolutely, so... actually, what this advertising boycott is gonna do, it's gonna kill the company. The whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company, and we will document it in great detail".

Sorkin: "But those advertisers, I imagine, are gonna say 'we didn't kill the company'

Musk: "oh yeah?"

Sorkin: "They're gonna say..."

Musk interrupts Sorkin, saying: "tell it to Earth".

Sorkin: "But they're gonna say that Elon, YOU killed the company because you said these things and that they were inappropriate things, and they didn't feel comfortable on the platform... right?"

Musk: "and let's see how Earth responds to that. We'll both make our cases, and we'll see what the outcome is".

Sorkin: "what are the economics of that for you, you have enormous resources, so you can keep this company going for a very long time... would you keep it going for a long time if there was no advertising".

Musk: "I mean, if the company fails because of an advertiser boycott, it will fail because of an advertiser boycott, and that will be what bankrupted the company, and that's what everybody on Earth will know. Then it will be gone. It will be gone because of an advertiser boycott".

what do you think then of the idea -- this goes back to the idea of trust, though..."

Musk: "then it'll be gone, and it will be gone because of an advertiser boycott".

Sorkin: "but you recognize some of those people are gonna say that they didn't feel comfortable on the platform and I just wonder, and ask you, and think about that for a second".

Musk: "Tell it to the judge".

Sorkin: "But the judge is going to be..."

Musk: "The judge is the public"

Sorkin: "You think the public is going to say that Disney is making a mistake".

Musk: "Yes".

Sorkin: "And they're going to boycott Disney?!" (he was shocked at saying that, like it wouldn't happen)

Musk: "They already are".

Sorkin: "Well, there are some that are, for lots of different reasons, but you think that this is going to... that you have the... this goes back to power and leverage".

Musk: "Let the chips fall where they may... let the chips fall where they may".