Elon Musk has shared more complaints about Disney and the company’s CEO Bob Iger on his platform X (formerly Twitter) after a New Mexico lawsuit against Meta claims Facebook and Instagram enabled child sexual abuse and trafficking. Disney, along with other entertainment and media companies, ceased advertising on X following a Media Matters for America study found that their ads had been placed next to antisemitic content. Around the same time, Musk endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory. Musk is now questioning why Disney hasn’t pulled advertising from Meta platforms.
On Thursday morning, Musk shared a meme that features two people laughing and the text “‘Bob Iger’ That’s the joke.” He wrote in his post, “Drops more bombs than a B-52”.
Not long after, Musk shared a post that linked back to a CNBC article about the Meta lawsuit that read “Sponsored by the Walt Disney Corporation.” Musk added, “Bob Eiger [sic] thinks it’s cool to advertise next to child exploitation material. Real stand up guy.”
Musk then re-shared CNBC’s post directly and wrote, “Why no advertiser boycott, Bob Eiger [sic]? You are endorsing this material!”
An hour later, Musk shared a post by Collin Rugg that addresses Bob Iger and other advertisers. Rugg claims Disney currently has approximately 300 ads for Disneyland and Walt Disney World on Meta platforms and asks if they will suspend advertising on Facebook and Instagram like they did with X.
Musk said, “Crazy that Disney has to be sued to stop this terrible behavior”. To be clear, the lawsuit by New Mexico’s attorney general is against Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, not Disney.
Following the study results and controversy surrounding Musk’s own views, The Walt Disney Company ceased all posting on X beginning on Friday, November 17. Disney began posting again on Tuesday, November 28, although has posted rarely since.
At the New York Times’ DealBook Summit on November 29, Iger addressed the situation, saying, “I have a lot of respect for Elon and what he’s accomplished. Not just you know, one business, but a few businesses. And we know Elon is larger than life in many respects, and that his name is very much tied to the companies he either founded or he owns, whether it’s Tesla or SpaceX, or now X. And by him taking the position that he took in quite a public manner, we just felt that the association with that position and Elon Musk and X was not necessarily a positive one for us. And we decided we would pull our advertising.”
Iger added that Disney entities will still use X to communicate, but that’s all. When asked how long the pause in marketing would continue, he said, “I haven’t really addressed it since the decision was made to find a good advertising platform.”
Later that day, Musk appeared at the same summit and said, “I don’t want them to advertise. If someone is going to blackmail me with advertising or money go f**k yourself. Go. F**k. Yourself. Is that clear? Hey Bob [Iger] if you’re in the audience.”
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