X owner Elon Musk on Thursday called for the resignation of Disney CEO Bob Iger after the entertainment company paused advertising on the social media platform, deepening the ongoing feud between the world’s richest man and the leader of the world’s largest media conglomerate
At The New York Times’ annual DealBook Summit last month, Musk repeatedly told the advertisers who’d fled over his endorsement of an antisemitic Tweet, to “Go fuck yourself,” before addressing Iger directly. “Hey, Bob.”
On Wednesday, a New Mexico lawsuit against X’s competitor Meta Platforms—the parent company of Facebook and Instagram—as well as Mark Zuckerberg, alleged both platforms have served as “prime locations for predators to trade child pornography and solicit minors for sex.”
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Musk seized on the allegations against his competitors to attack Iger.
“Bob Eiger [sic] thinks it’s cool to advertise next to child exploitation material. Real stand up guy,” Musk tweeted, before following up: “He should be fired immediately. Walt Disney is turning in his grave over what Bob has done to his company.”
Musk’s post sought to highlight the difference between the backlash to his varied antics at the helm of X and the minimal blowback from advertisers as his competitors face allegations of exploiting kids.
Earlier this year the attorneys general of 33 states filed a sweeping lawsuit against Meta Platforms, alleging the company knew of millions of accounts belonging to users under the age of 13 and not only “zealously” worked to keep that fact hidden but continued to harvest email and location data from the kids without parents knowledge.
Each teen had a lifetime value of $270 per child, per internal Meta metrics. “Its motive is profit, and in seeking to maximize its financial gains, Meta has repeatedly misled the public about the substantial dangers of its Social Media Platforms,” prosecutors alleged.
Neither Meta nor Instagram have seen the advertiser exodus that X has faced in recent weeks and months under Musk’s leadership.
