It is less than a year since Elon Musk told advertisers who were shunning his social media site, X, that they could take their business elsewhere permanently. In fact, he encouraged them to do so. “Don’t advertise,” he said, amid a backlash over his endorsement of an antisemitic tweet. “If someone’s going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself.”
The instruction had the virtue of clarity. Everybody knew where they stood. Advertisers who took the view that X has become a poisonous sewer under Musk’s ownership – or even just those who merely regarded the site as the wrong place to promote soap and suchlike – could seek other venues. And X would thrive or fail without them.
