Ilon Musk explained what caused him to "send" advertisers to the mat last year and tried to soften his stance

Elon Musk tried to justify and soften his words "Go. F—. Yourself" to advertisers who left X Twitter after it was acquired by a billionaire and the policy changed. It turns out he only "sent" those who wanted "censorship."

At the Cannes Lions advertising festival in Cannes, France, WPP CEO Mark Read asked Musk what he meant. He replied that it was said in defense of freedom of speech and did not overall concern the advertising industry.

"It wasn't about advertisers in general. As for freedom of speech, I believe it's important to have a global platform for freedom of speech, where people with a wide range of views can express their opinions. In some cases, there were advertisers who insisted on censorship. We're going to support freedom of speech, not agree to censorship for money, which, in my opinion, is the right moral decision. In the end… if we have to choose between censorship and losing money, [or] censorship and money, or freedom of speech and losing money, we will choose the latter," Musk replied.

The owner of X Twitter flew to Cannes this week to reassure advertising groups and global brands about the future of X. He was joined by Linda Yaccarino, X CEO and former head of global advertising and partnerships at NBC Universal.

Recall, in November Musk called an anti-Semitic post "factually true" — since then, more than 100 brands have discontinued advertising partnerships with his social network. According to The New York Times, the company could have lost $75 million at that time. Later, Musk visited the DealBook 2023 summit in New York, where, instead of apologizing, he rudely stated that advertisers who will stop advertising on the platform should leave it.

"If someone is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail with money, then go to hell. Go f— yourself. Is that clear? Hope so," Musk unexpectedly declared and then directly addressed Disney's CEO Bob Iger, who had previously spoken at the same event. "Hey, Bob, if you're in the audience."

Now Musk has largely "backtracked":

"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 square for the world, it really is better off being a platform for free speech — that doesn't mean people can say illegal things; it's freedom of speech within the law."

Elon Musk's true attitude towards freedom of speech can be seen in a comment where he calls on recognizing the Ukrainian site Texty.org.ua as a terrorist organization. It seems that not everyone should have freedom of speech.

Source: CNBC