In his shocking appearance at the New York Times DealBook Summit, Elon Musk, the enigmatic CEO of Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) and owner of X (formerly Twitter), lashed out at advertisers who left his social media platform due to his recent antisemitic post.
Musk apologized for the post, describing it as “dumbest” ever, but he fiercely responded to the advertisers’ exodus, asserting he would not succumb to blackmail.
“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.”
– Musk said at the New York Times DealBook Summit.
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Most notably, Musk called out Disney (NYSE: DIS) CEO Bob Iger, singling him out as the leader of the boycotts against X.
“Go f*** yourself, is that clear? Hey Bob, if you’re in the audience. That’s how I feel, don’t advertise.”
– Musk said, referring to Disney’s Bob Iger.
Remarkably, Musk’s remarks triggered a significant backlash against Disney-owned streaming services Disney+ and Hulu, resulting in a string of subscription cancellations on the two platforms.
‘Cancel Disney+’ and ‘cancel Hulu’ among top-trending searches
In his New York Times DealBook Summit, Musk single-handedly initiated a widespread boycott against Disney and its streaming services.
Notably, cancellations began to peak all around the globe, with #Cancel becoming one of the top-trending searches on X.
According to The Kobeissi Letter, a capital market commentary on the global capital markets, search interest for “cancel Disney+” and “cancel Hulu” skyrocketed 120% after Musk’s interview.
In its own poll conducted on X, 68.5% of 90,000 respondents said they would cancel their subscriptions to these platforms.
Influential right-wing accounts on X including End Wokeness, Libs of TikTok, Zero Hedge, and Elon Musk (Parody) supported the boycott, urging subscribers to cancel their Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions.
“Stop giving money to people that hate you. Cancel Disney+ and pass it on,” End Wokeness said Thursday on X.
“Cancel Hulu and Cancel Disney Plus are now both breakout trends on Google Trends as viewers apparently respond to their efforts to censor and cancel Elon Musk and X. Fate loves irony.”
– wrote right-wing pundit Ian Miles Cheong.
Disney’s stock fell over 0.6% at the market open on December 1 to $91.99. It should be interesting to see whether the newly-started backlash would continue to weigh on Disney’s top and bottom lines if subscribers continue to halt their subscriptions.
