Elon Musk is no stranger to controversy. The Tesla CEO is back in the midst of another while defending X, an organization he founded and is a big supporter of.
In a series of tweets on Monday, Musk posted an expletive-filled rant targeting advertisers who recently boycotted the organization for failing to address what they describe as hate speech, bigotry, racism, and anti-Semitism on its platform.
Musk questioned why companies such as Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Unilever, and PepsiCo, have pulled their support from X while choosing not to do the same from other platforms such as YouTube and Facebook, despite the controversies they have faced. Musk also questioned whether or not these companies are selectively targeting X.
“It’s like a double standard where they only apply censorship to rival platforms and don’t penalize ethic violations by their preferred sources of ad revenue,” he wrote in one of his tweets.
Musk also took to the crowdfunding platform, Patreon, to launch a $2 million legal fund to fight the decision, adding that companies such as Apple and Amazon have applied censorship unfairly to X, leading to the loss of businesses and income streams for a number of partners and creators.
The Twitter tirade follows a series of back-and-forths between X and the advertisers over the past few weeks. Advertisers had initially threatened to their pull ads from X unless it took action to eliminate hate speech and other offensive content. X later announced its own changes to its policies –– banning certain users who it claims are inciting violence –– but it was not enough to change the advertiser’s decision to pull their ads.
The boycott is a major blow for X, as the majority of its revenue comes from advertising. Musk’s strong defense signals his ongoing support for the platform, and it seems likely that the issue will remain in the public eye for some time to come.