What Elon Musk Actually Posted in November 2023 — and What Happened Next
On 15 November 2023, Elon Musk replied to a post on X with six words. Within four days, nine major advertisers had suspended their spending on the platform. Within two weeks he had both apologised for the post and told the departing advertisers to go fuck themselves — from the same stage, minutes apart.
This page sets out what was actually written, in whose words, on what date, and where the resulting litigation stands today.
What was actually posted
On the afternoon of Wednesday 15 November 2023, an X account posted a reply within a thread discussing a public service announcement from the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism. It read:
“Jewish communties have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.”
“I’m deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest shit now about western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that [they supported] flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much. You want truth said to your face, there it is.”
The misspelling of “communities” is in the original. Musk replied to that post with six words:
“You have said the actual truth”
His reply passed six million views, according to the count displayed on the post at the time.
The second post, in the same thread
Later in the same thread, Musk posted separately about the Anti-Defamation League:
“The ADL unjustly attacks the majority of the West, despite the majority of the West supporting the Jewish people and Israel”
He went on to accuse the organisation of pushing what he called “de facto anti-white racism”. This second exchange is frequently omitted from accounts of the incident, but it belongs to the same sequence on the same day.
How it was characterised
This site separates what was said from what others said about it. On the characterisation, the record is close to unanimous across outlets of very different editorial positions — CBS News, CNN, Time, Forbes, CNBC and TechCrunch all reported the underlying post as antisemitic and Musk’s reply as an endorsement of it.
Reporting also tied the post’s content to the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory — the claim that non-white populations are being deliberately introduced into Western countries to displace white majorities. TechCrunch noted that the specific formulation echoed material espoused by the gunman who attacked the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.
On Friday 17 November, the White House responded through spokesperson Andrew Bates:
“We condemn this abhorrent promotion of Antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms, which runs against our core values as Americans.”
The advertiser withdrawal
The commercial reaction began the following day — and it began with a different document. IBM’s stated reason was not Musk’s post but a report published on 16 November by Media Matters for America, which said advertisements for major brands had been appearing alongside pro-Nazi content on X.
What Musk said afterwards
At DealBook on 29 November, interviewed by Andrew Ross Sorkin, Musk addressed the post directly. He described it as possibly the worst and dumbest thing he had ever posted, and said his recent trip to Israel, where he met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was “not an apology tour”.
“I should, in retrospect, not have replied to that particular post, and should have expanded in greater length about what I meant… essentially I handed a loaded gun to those who hate me and arguably to those who are antisemitic. And for that I’m quite sorry, that was not my intention.”
Minutes later in the same interview, asked about the advertisers who had left:
“I hope they stop. Don’t advertise… If somebody’s going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is. Hey, Bob, if you’re in the audience. That’s how I feel. Don’t advertise.”
“Bob” was Bob Iger, chief executive of Disney, who had spoken at the same summit earlier that day. Of the boycott, Musk also said: “That will be what bankrupts the company and that is what everybody on Earth will know.”
The litigation that followed
X Corp. v. Media Matters for America
No. 4:23-cv-01175 · U.S. District Court, N.D. Texas · filed 20 November 2023
Ongoing — no finding on the merits
X Corp alleges interference with contract, business disparagement and tortious interference, claiming Media Matters manipulated the platform’s algorithms to manufacture the ad placements it reported, then presented those as a typical user experience. Media Matters denies this and maintains its reporting was accurate.
A motion to dismiss was denied in 2024, allowing the claims to proceed. In October 2024 the Fifth Circuit blocked a district court order that would have compelled Media Matters to disclose its donors’ names and addresses, finding X Corp’s discovery requests disproportionate to the needs of the case. In July 2026 the district court ordered X Corp itself to produce certain deleted posts.
X Corp. v. World Federation of Advertisers
Antitrust action · defendants included Mars, CVS Health and Colgate-Palmolive
Dismissed — 26 March 2026
A separate action alleging that advertisers had illegally organised a boycott through the Global Alliance for Responsible Media. A US judge dismissed it in March 2026.
Allegations are not findings
Nothing in the Media Matters proceedings has been decided on the merits. X Corp’s claims remain claims; Media Matters’ denial remains a denial. A court permitting a case to proceed past dismissal is a procedural step, not a determination that the allegations are true.
The dismissal of the World Federation of Advertisers action likewise ended that claim without any finding that the advertisers had acted unlawfully.
Where the commercial position ended up
Most of the advertisers returned, at a fraction of their previous spend. Analysis by MediaRadar covering January to September 2024 found five of them had collectively spent under $3.3 million on X across that period — a 98% reduction against roughly $170 million over the same nine months of 2023.
| Advertiser | Spend |
|---|---|
| Comcast | under $1.5m |
| Warner Bros. Discovery | $1.1m |
| Disney | under $550,000 |
| Lionsgate | under $230,000 |
| IBM | under $2,000 |
| Apple | had not resumed |
Sources
- Elon Musk agrees with X post that claims Jews ‘push hatred’ against White peopleCNN · 15 November 2023
- White House condemns Elon Musk post to X that supported antisemitic claimNBC News · November 2023
- Elon Musk Condemned After Calling Antisemitic Post ‘Actual Truth’Forbes · 16 November 2023
- Backlash builds after Elon Musk called an antisemitic conspiracy theory the ‘actual truth’TechCrunch · 17 November 2023
- IBM pulls advertising from X after report shows ads ran next to antisemitic messagesPBS NewsHour · November 2023
- Apple, Disney, Comcast among X advertisers pausing spendingTechCrunch · 20 November 2023
- Elon Musk Rips Into “Largest Advertisers” After Disney & Other Media Companies Pause AdsDeadline · 18 November 2023
- DealBook Summit 2023: Elon Musk interview transcriptRev · full transcript
- Elon Musk to Advertisers Who Left XThe Hollywood Reporter · 29 November 2023
- X Corp. v. Media Matters — complaint as filed (PDF)Primary document · 20 November 2023
- X Corp. v. Media Matters for America — full docketCourtListener · No. 4:23-cv-01175
- Fifth Circuit opinion, No. 24-10900 (PDF)Primary document · October 2024
- X ordered to turn over deleted posts in defamation case against Media MattersCourthouse News · July 2026
- Judge throws out lawsuit accusing advertisers of illegal boycottCBC · 27 March 2026
- Comcast, Disney, and IBM Are Among Advertisers Returning to XAdweek · November 2024
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