Elon Musk on Wednesday tried to justify and soften his words «Go. F—. Yourself» to advertisers who left X Twitter after it was acquired by a billionaire and changed its policies. It turns out that he did not «send» everyone, but only those who wanted «censorship».
At the «Cannes Lions» advertising festival in Cannes, France, WPP CEO Mark Reed asked Musk what he meant. He replied that it was said in defense of freedom of speech and did not apply to the advertising industry in general.
«It was not about advertisers in general. In terms of freedom of speech, I think it’s important to have a global platform for freedom of speech where people with a wide range of views can express their views. In some cases, there were advertisers who insisted on censorship. We are going to support freedom of speech rather than accept censorship for money, which I think is the right moral decision. At the end of the day… if we have to make a choice between censorship and losing money, [or] censorship and money, or freedom of speech and losing money, we’ll choose the latter,» Musk said.
Twitter owner X flew to Cannes this week to reassure advertising groups and global brands about the future of X. He was joined by Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X and former head of global advertising and partnerships at NBC Universal.
As a reminder, in November, Musk called an anti-Semitic publication «factual truth» — since then, more than 100 brands have stopped advertising cooperation with his social network. According to The New York Times, the company could have lost $75 million. Later, Musk attended the DealBook 2023 summit in New York, where instead of apologizing stated in a rude manner that advertisers who stop advertising on the platform should leave it.
«If someone tries to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, then go to hell. Go to hell. Is that clear? I hope so», — Musk suddenly said and then addressed Disney CEO Bob Iger, who had previously spoken at the same event. «Hey, Bob, if you’re in the audience».
Now Musk has largely given the «a run for its money:
«Of course, advertisers have the right to appear alongside content they deem compatible with their brands. But it’s not cool to insist that platforms can’t have content they disagree with. For X to be a public platform for the world, it really better be a platform of free speech — this doesn’t mean that people can say illegal things; it’s free speech within the law».
Elon Musk’s true attitude to freedom of speech can be seen in a comment he made calls for the Ukrainian website Texty.org.ua to be recognized as a terrorist organization. It seems that not everyone should have freedom of speech.
Source: CNBC