Elon Musk on Wednesday walked back his harsh comments to advertisers last November, when he told the industry to “go f‑‑‑ yourself” after several firms pulled their ad spending on his social media platform X.
“It wasn’t to advertisers as a whole,” Musk said Wednesday in a conversation with WPP CEO Mark Read at the Cannes Lions advertising festival.
“It was with respect to freedom of speech,” he continued. “I think it is important to have a global free speech platform, where people from a wide range of opinions can voice their views.”
The billionaire owner of X argued that some advertisers were “insisting on censorship.”
Several major companies — including Disney, Apple, IBM, Comcast, Lionsgate, Warner Bros. Discovery, Sony Pictures and Paramount — paused their ad spending on the platform last fall, after reports emerged that X was placing ads for mainstream brands next to pro-Nazi and white nationalist content.
Musk, in turn, lashed out at advertisers in …