Elon Musk responds to ‘fuck you’ comments to advertisers

Elon Musk on Wednesday walked back his harsh comments to advertisers last November, when he told the industry to “fuck off” after several companies pulled their advertising spend on his X social media platform.

“It wasn’t for advertisers as a whole,” Musk said Wednesday in conversation with WPP CEO Mark Read at the Cannes Lions advertising festival.

“It was with respect to freedom of expression,” he continued. “I think it is important to have a global platform for freedom of expression, where people with diverse opinions can express their views.”

The billionaire owner of X argued that some advertisers were “insisting on censorship.”

Several large companies – including Disney, Apple, IBM, Comcast, Lionsgate, Warner Bros. Discovery, Sony Pictures and Paramount – halted their advertising spending on the platform last fall after reports emerged that X was placing ads for mainstream brands alongside commercial brands. Nazi and white nationalist content.

Musk, for his part, lashed out at advertisers in an expletive-laden outburst at The New York Times DealBook Summit.

“If someone is going to try to blackmail me with publicity, blackmail me with money, fuck them,” he said at the time. “Fuck you. It is clear? I hope so.

Musk framed the situation on Wednesday as a choice between free speech and money.

“If we have to choose between censorship and money or freedom of speech and losing money, we will choose the latter,” he said. “Let’s support free speech rather than agree to be censored for money, which I think is the right moral decision.”

However, he also acknowledged that advertisers “have the right to appear alongside content they consider compatible with their brands.”

“This is totally cool,” Musk said. “But what’s not cool is insisting that there can’t be any content they disagree with on the platform.”

“For X to be a public square for the world, it better truly be a platform for freedom of expression,” he added. “Now, that doesn’t mean people can say illegal things. It is freedom of expression within the limits of the law.”

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story