Musk is attending Cannes Lions this week with an aim to reassure ad groups and global brands over the long run of X.
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Elon Musk on Wednesday tried to walk back remarks lashing out at advertisers fleeing his X social media platform.
On the Cannes Lions promoting festival in Cannes, France, Musk was asked by WPP CEO Mark Read what he meant by telling advertisers threatening to drag ads from the platform late last 12 months to “go f— yourself.”
Musk said it was meant as a general point on free speech reasonably than a comment to the broader promoting industry.
“It wasn’t to advertisers as an entire,” Musk said. “It was with respect to freedom of speech, I feel it is necessary to have a world free speech platform, where people from a wider range of opinions can voice their views.”
“In some cases, there have been advertisers who were insisting on censorship,” Musk said. “At the tip of the day … if now we have to choose between censorship and losing money, [or] censorship and money, or free speech and losing money, we’ll select the second.”
“We will support free speech reasonably than comply with be censored for money which I feel is the fitting moral decision,” he added.
Musk flew into Cannes earlier this week with an aim to reassure ad groups and global brands over the long run of X.
He was joined by Linda Yaccarino, X’s CEO and former chairman of world promoting and partnerships for NBC Universal.
Free speech platform
Last 12 months, a number of the world’s largest advertisers including Apple, IBM, Disney, and Sony pulled their promoting on X within the wake of controversial comments made by Musk, in addition to instances of their ad placements being featured alongside toxic posts.
In November, Musk travelled to Israel to fulfill with local officials after he was accused by civil rights groups of amplifying anti-Jewish hatred on X.
The tech billionaire, asked on the time whether this trip was an “apology tour” to advertisers, said onstage at 2023 DealBook Summit in Recent York that advertisers threatening to halt spending on ads on the platform should stop promoting on his platform.
“Don’t advertise,” he said within the November interview with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin. “If any person goes to attempt to blackmail me with promoting? Blackmail me with money? Go f— yourself.”
Musk on Wednesday backpedalled on his attacks against advertisers.
“In fact, advertisers have a right to seem next to content they find compatible with their brands,” he said. “What will not be cool is insisting that there may be no content that they disagree with on the platforms.”
He added: “To ensure that X to be the general public square for the world, it really higher be a free speech platform — that does not imply people can say illegal things; it’s free speech throughout the bounds of the law.”
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.
