Then and now. Then, Musk was defiant in the face of advertisers who did not want to be associated with antisemitic tweets. Now, Musk is asking a court to force advertisers to have their products featured alongside outrageous social media statements.


First, then..

Elon Musk took the stage at the DealBook conference on Wednesday evening with nervous laughter and a cascade of jokes about himself and his companies. But the interview quickly turned to the more serious subject of Musk’s recent antisemitic posts on X (formerly Twitter) and whether his company can survive the advertiser boycott. On that matter, Musk seemed alternatingly apologetic and defiant — acknowledging his mistakes, then doing everything in his power to push advertisers away.

“I hope they stop. Don’t advertise,” Musk told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin. “If somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go f*** yourself. Go f*** yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.” He singled out Disney CEO Bob Iger, who discussed not wanting Disney to be affiliated with Musk while onstage earlier in the day. “Hey Bob, if you’re in the audience.”

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Immediately after taking control of Twitter, Musk began removing content rules and allowed swarms of formerly banned individuals back on the site, including Nazis, white supremacists, and former President Donald Trump, who was once banned from Twitter for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol using his @realDonaldTrump account. At the same time, Musk removed blue check marks that signaled users who might be a trustworthy source of information, and then sold them as part of a larger push for subscription revenue, a move that further corrupted the information ecosystem on the platform.

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Now, now..

WICHITA FALLS, Texas (AP) — Elon Musk’s social media platform X has sued a group of advertisers, alleging that a “massive advertiser boycott” deprived the company of billions of dollars in revenue and violated antitrust laws.

The company formerly known as Twitter filed the lawsuit Tuesday in a federal court in Texas against the World Federation of Advertisers and member companies Unilever, Mars, CVS Health and Orsted.

It accused the advertising group’s brand safety initiative, called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, of helping to coordinate a pause in advertising after Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022 and overhauled its staff and policies.

Musk posted about the lawsuit on X on Tuesday, saying “now it is war” after two years of being nice and “getting nothing but empty words.”

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Nobody is stopping Musk from turning Twitter into a dumpster. Unfortunately, he thinks he is entitled to force advertisers to subsidize his endeavor. If you ever advertise on Twitter and then decide to stop advertising, you'll get sued.

The lawsuit was filed in a small one-judge court in a corner of Texas known for supporting conservative causes.