Elon Musk Has a Warning for Disney

Elon Musk has hit out at Disney after the company pulled its advertising from his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

The entertainment giant is one of several businesses to leave X after Musk was accused of supporting antisemitism on the network.

The tech billionaire has denied the claims, but it has not stopped X from losing deals. Other big names to remove their advertising from the platform include Paramount Global, Apple, Warner Bros and IBM.

On Monday, Musk shared an article by satirical site The Dunning-Kruger Times titled: "Disney loses 23 million subscribers overnight trying to cancel Musk."

"This is fake, but Disney and others were buying advertising on this platform because it made financial sense for them to do so," the 52-year-old wrote on X.

"It wasn't some kind of charitable donation! In boycotting X, they will experience a meaningful decline in distribution, which is contrary to the interests of their shareholders."

Newsweek has reached out to Musk and Disney for comment via email.

Since being shared, the post has received over 186,000 views, with his warning to Disney dividing users.

Some agreed with Musk and predicted the company's downfall, with @WhatupFranks commenting: "The world will see!"

"This is all about trying to shut down X before the 2024 election," said Vince Langman.

"I cancelled my DIS+ sub," wrote Ryan Scanlan. "I was thinking of it anyway, but their anti-speech stance pushed me over."

"I'm boycotting Disney from my Christmas shopping," commented vk, while Irina Anthony said: "This act will come back to haunt them in a much worse way!"

However, others defended Disney, with @100CottonDanny writing: "Disney are not boycotting X, they're simply sitting back in a chair saying '[Go f*** yourself] Elon."

"Or, they then made a conscious decision to not advertise here because it doesn't make financial sense for them," said Tyler Punteney. "Weird how that may work."

On November 27, Musk took a trip to Israel following allegations of antisemitism. The entrepreneur sparked outrage after agreeing with an X post that suggested Jewish people are fueling hatred against white people to obtain power—a conspiracy theory known as "the great replacement."

"The actual truth," he commented on the post, with the remark being followed by an exodus of advertisers. Musk called the antisemitism allegations "bogus" and accused the press of writing fake news. He has since described the comment as "one of the most foolish" things he's ever posted on the network.

Addressing a separate incident, Musk filed a lawsuit against Media Matters—a non-profit and media watchdog group—after the organization accused him of permitting pro-Nazi advertising on X, including Hitler quotes and Holocaust denial claims.

During an appearance at The New York Times Dealbook Summit on November 29, Musk slammed Disney CEO and fellow attendee Bob Iger.

"What this advertising boycott is going to do is, it is going to kill the company," he said. "And the whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company."

Speaking to Iger directly, Musk continued: "Don't advertise. If someone is going to try and blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go f*** yourself.

"Go f*** yourself, is that clear? Hey Bob, if you're in the audience. That's how I feel, don't advertise."

Musk purchased Twitter in October 2022 for $44 billion dollars, rebranding the social network as X. Although the site was already struggling financially before the acquisition, in July Musk admitted that X had lost roughly half of its advertising revenue, with the company experiencing "negative cash flow."

X has also garnered a reputation for allowing hate speech to thrive. Musk caused controversy after reinstating the accounts of former President Donald Trump, right-wing media group Veritas, self-described "misogynist" Andrew Tate, conservative commentator and academic Jordan Peterson and rapper Kanye West. All were previously removed for allegedly posting hate speech or misinformation.

A report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), released in June, claimed that hate speech is still rampant on the platform. The nonprofit accused the network of not removing offensive content—despite it violating X's community guidelines—along with using an algorithm that boosts "toxic" posts.

In response, X alleged the CCHD illegally accessed its data to "falsely claim it had statistical support showing the platform is overwhelmed with harmful content," suing the organization for purportedly driving "advertisers off Twitter by smearing the company and its owner."