Elon Musk Apologizes for Replying to Antisemitic Post on X, Tells Advertisers to ‘Go F—k Yourself’ 

Elon Musk apologized for encouraging antisemitic rhetoric in a post on his social media platform X during Wednesday’s New York Times DealBook summit, then immediately slammed advertisers announcing their departure from the platform saying, “Go f–k yourself.”

The billionaire apologized for his controversial reply on X: “I handed a loaded gun to those who hate me, and arguably to those who are antisemitic. For that I’m quite sorry, that was not my intention.”

“I should in retrospect not have replied to that particular post,” he continued.

Musk also clarified that his recent visit to Israel and meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not “an apology tour.” He was still wearing a tag around his neck given to him by the families of one of the hostages held in Gaza, which Musk shared reads “Bring Them Home.”

Although he did apologize for calling an antisemitic conspiracy theory “the actual truth,” Musk doubled down, saying that he “subsequently clarified in replies, but those clarifications were ignored by the media.”

Journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin then asked Musk about the recent advertising exodus to which Musk responded that he didn’t care if they left the social media platform.

“If somebody’s gonna try to blackmail me with advertising blackmail me with money,” Musk said. “Go f–k yourself.”

“Is that clear?” the billionaire quipped. “That’s how I feel.”

Musk has made that pretty clear, considering last week he called advertisers on X, “greatest oppressors of your right to free speech,” just after major advertisers announced they would no longer market on the platform.

The advertisers pausing ads on the platform included Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, Sony, Lionsgate, Apple, and IBM. 

The billionaire also filed a lawsuit against Media Matters, the liberal watchdog media outlet that published an exposé claiming X was not adhering to agreed-upon brand safety measures for advertisers’ content. The report, which accused X of placing ads for brands next to pro-Hitler content on the site seemed to be the trigger for the mass exodus.

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