X owner Elon Musk walked back his shot at advertisers, changing his tune this week at the Cannes Lions festival in France.
On Wednesday, WPP CEO Mark Read asked Mr. Musk if he stood by his remark from last year when he told advertisers to “go f—- yourself.”
“It wasn’t made to advertisers as a whole. It was with respect to freedom of speech. I think it is important to have a global free speech platform where people from a wider range of opinions can voice their views,” Mr. Musk said.
He went on to claim that some advertisers were leveraging their marketing money to get Mr. Musk to censor speech.
“At the end of the day, if we have to make a choice between censorship and losing money, or censorship and money, or free speech and losing money, we’re going to choose the second,” he said.
Mr. Musk’s trip to the festival is likely part of a greater effort to woo advertisers back to the platform. The billionaire attended the event with X CEO Linda Yaccarino, whom Mr. Musk hired last year to bring in more ad dollars.
Advertisers fled X in droves last year after a series of business decisions and comments made by Mr. Musk.
After accusations of antisemitism, Mr. Musk flew to Israel in November and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Days later the billionaire attended the DealBook Summit in New York, where he was asked by CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin about the marketing situation on X.
Mr. Musk responded bitterly, daring advertisers to stop advertising and unleashing his expletive line.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.