After Disney pulled advertising from Elon Musk’s X platform (formerly Twitter) and Musk claimed “I don’t want them to advertise,” he continues to complain about Disney CEO Bob Iger. On Thursday, he posted several times about Disney and Iger (whom he called “Bob Eiger”) because he thinks the entertainment company should also cease advertising on Facebook and Instagram amid a New Mexico lawsuit against their parent company Meta.
In a reply post to a user asking why Disney hasn’t fired Bob Iger, Elon Musk wrote, “He should be fired immediately. Walt Disney is turning in his grave over what Bob has done to his company.”
Iger first served as CEO of The Walt Disney Company from 2005 to 2020. He chose Bob Chapek — who, at the time, was chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products — as his successor. Chapek took over the position in 2020, while Iger remained on as executive chairman. As the COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected business, Iger took over some CEO duties again. He retired from the company in late 2021. But less than a year later, the board of supervisors fired Chapek and brought Iger back into the role. Iger’s contract is up in 2026 and he says he will “definitely” step down.
Disney and other companies ceased advertising on X following a Media Matters for America study that found that their ads had been placed next to antisemitic content, which coincided with Musk himself endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory. Disney paused posting on X beginning on Friday, November 17. Disney accounts began posting again on Tuesday, November 28.
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.”
New Mexico has brought a civil suit against Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg that claims Facebook and Instagram enabled child sexual abuse and trafficking. Among his Thursday posts, Musk said, “Bob Eiger [sic] thinks it’s cool to advertise next to child exploitation material. Real stand up guy.”
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