Stephen King Has a Message for Elon Musk

Stephen King has proven to be one of Elon Musk's harshest critics and now the horror author has had to remind the businessman why Disney is no longer advertising on his social media platform.

Musk bought X, formerly Twitter, in October, 2022, but since then, several major companies have pulled advertising after he publicly endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory. On November 15 the Tesla and SpaceX CEO replied to a post that read: "Jewish communties [sic] have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them." Musk wrote this was "the actual truth."

Disney has long been one of X's top advertisers but it has joined other brands, such as Warner Bros, Apple and Comcast, in no longer advertising on the platform. Tesla investors have also distanced themselves.

On December 1 Musk shared a screenshot of a column graph highlighting the relationship between platform usage and antisemitic and anti-Israel views on X. According to the graph, there are fewer antisemitic and anti-Israel views expressed on X compared with TikTok and Instagram. Musk added: "So then why is Disney boycotting 𝕏, yet spending millions on other platforms?"

King retweeted the post on December 2 to remind Musk that the reason Disney was distancing itself was down to Musk himself. The author wrote: "It was what you said."

Newsweek reached out to King and Musk for comment via email Monday.

Disney CEO Bob Iger echoed King's sentiment on November 29 when he appeared at the New York Times Dealbook Summit and addressed Disney's decision to stop advertising on X.

"I have a lot of respect for Elon and what he has accomplished," Iger said. "We know that Elon is larger than life in many respects, and that his name is very much connected to the companies he founded or owns. By him taking the position he took in a public manner, we felt that the association was not necessarily a positive one for us."

Musk appeared at the summit later in the day where he was asked about Disney and other companies stopping advertising on X.

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

He also spoke about Iger directly, saying: "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."

However, Musk also admitted that replying to the controversial tweet was "one of the most foolish" things he had posted on X.

"I should, in retrospect, not have replied to that particular post, and should have expanded in greater length about what I meant," he said. "What I am trying to illustrate is that, sometimes I say the wrong thing."

This isn't the first time that King has publicly shared his thoughts on Musk. After taking over the social media site in October 2022, Musk has received criticism from many who believe that it is on the decline under his leadership, including the horror novelist.

In a post previously made to Twitter in November 2022, King wrote: "I think Elon Musk is a visionary. Almost singlehandedly, he's changed the way Americans think about automobiles. I have a Tesla and love it. That said, he's been a terrible fit for Twitter. He appears to be making it up as he goes along."

In response, Musk wrote: "Suggestions are welcome Mr. [King]," using a crown emoji in place of King's last name.

Another user replied: "First suggestion DO NOT LISTEN TO STEPHEN KING!!"

However, Musk responded amicably, tweeting: "Stephen King is one of most creative people on Earth. While I may not agree with everything he says, I do actually want to hear it."

Another user suggested in the thread that Musk invite King to Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco to "have a face-to-face conversation," a tweet to which Musk simply replied: "He is invited!"