Elon Musk has lambasted advertisers who have abandoned X in a profanity-laced rant, claiming that they will ruin the social networking site.

He accused firms that have joined an ad boycott of the platform formerly known as Twitter of attempting to blackmail him during a New York event.

“Go [expletive] yourself,” stated the billionaire in an interview.

Some businesses have halted advertising on X due to antisemitism fears, including one from Mr Musk himself.

On Wednesday, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO apologized for the message, claiming it was the “dumbest” thing he has ever written online.

But it was his reaction to a query about an advertising boycott by firms such as Disney, Apple, and Comcast that generated a stir at the gathering of economic, political, and cultural leaders.

“I don’t want them to advertise,” Mr Musk stated at the DealBook Summit hosted by the New York Times.

“If you’re going to blackmail me with advertising or money, you should [expletive] yourself.”

“Go. [Expletive]. Yourself. Is that understood? That’s how I feel, Bob, if you’re in the crowd.”

He was probably alluding to Disney CEO Bob Iger, who addressed earlier in the day at the meeting.

Linda Yaccarino, X’s CEO, was in the meeting with Mr Musk and has been tasked with bringing back advertisers to the site.

Mr. Musk also stated that advertisers had the ability to kill X.

“What this advertising boycott is going to do is it’s going to kill the company,” he went on to say.

“The whole world will know those advertisers killed the company, and we will document it in great detail,” he went on to say.

Ms Yaccarino has now reposted what she called his “candid interview,” adding that “X is standing at a unique and amazing intersection of Free Speech and Main Street — and the X community is powerful and is here to welcome you.”

Mr Musk has been in Israel since last month, when he appeared to directly support an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.

“I’m sorry for that tweet… it might be literally the worst and dumbest post that I’ve ever done,” he wrote in a tweet on Wednesday.

But the boycott isn’t simply about that post.

Many advertisers had already made the decision to spend their money elsewhere.

Mr Musk told the BBC in April that “almost all of them [advertisers] have either come back or are going to come back.”

Three months later, he admitted in a post on X that ad revenue had dropped by half.

That was before a report by the liberal advocacy organization Media Matters claimed to have discovered proof that some advertisements were put alongside Nazi content.

X files anti-Semitism lawsuit against a pressure organization
According to X, the group’s research “misrepresented the true user experience of X” in order to “undermine free speech and mislead advertisers.” X has taken legal action against Media Matters.

It’s difficult to see how Mr Musk’s remarks will entice sponsors to return. The corporation relies substantially on its funds.

Because X is now a private firm and no longer publishes quarterly reports, it’s unknown how much of its revenue comes from advertising.

However, before Mr Musk took over the company, advertising accounted for over 90% of Twitter revenue.