Musk tells Iger to boycott Facebook and Instagram over child abuse, trafficking lawsuit
SANTA FE, N.M. – Elon Musk, billionaire owner of X, Tesla and SpaceX, called on Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger to launch an advertising boycott on Instagram and Facebook amidst a new lawsuit alleging the companies’ enabling of child sex abuse and trafficking.
Disney suspended ads on X over controversy surrounding accusations of Musk agreeing with antisemitic rhetoric.
New Mexico’s attorney general sued the Meta platforms and CEO Mark Zuckerberg over accusations of enabling child sex abuse and human trafficking.
“Our investigation into Meta’s social media platforms demonstrates that they are not safe spaces for children but rather prime locations for predators to trade child pornography and solicit minors for sex,” said Attorney General Raúl Torrez.
“As a career prosecutor who specialized in internet crimes against children, I am committed to using every available tool to put an end to these horrific practices and I will hold companies — and their executives — accountable whenever they put profits ahead of children’s safety,” Torrez said.
Musk said Iger is “endorsing this material” as outlined by the New Mexico attorney general.
“Why no advertiser boycott, Bob [Iger]?” Musk pondered.
“Bob [Iger] thinks it’s cool to advertise next to child exploitation material,” Musk said. “Real stand up guy.”
Musk further said that Walt Disney, the original founder of the company, is “turning in his grave over what Bob has done to his company.”
“Why do their Chief Marketing Officers endorse child trafficking!?” Musk said. “Let’s ask them.”
New Mexico’s attorney general said the state executed an “undercover investigation” via creating decoy accounts of children 14 and under. His office said it gathered evidence that the Meta platforms:
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez’s office.
- Proactively served and directed the underage users a stream of egregious, sexually explicit images — even when the child has expressed no interest in this content
- Enabled dozens of adults to find, contact, and press children into providing sexually explicit pictures of themselves or participate in pornographic videos.
- Recommended that the children join unmoderated Facebook groups devoted to facilitating commercial sex.
- Allowed Facebook and Instagram users to find, share, and sell an enormous volume of child pornography.
- Allowed a fictitious mother to offer her 13-year-old daughter for sale to sex traffickers and to create a professional page to allow her daughter to share revenue from advertising.
His office accused Meta of not removing Child Sexual Abuse Material along with enabling adults to solicit underaged users to create pornography.
Iger recently noted his “respect” for the X owner but worried about Disney’s association with X via advertisements.
“By him taking the position that he took in quite a public manner, we just felt that the association with that position, and with Elon Musk, and X was not necessarily a positive one for us and we decided we would pull our advertising,” Iger said, referring to the theory that Musk may be an antisemite because of a recent X post.
Iger made the comments at the New York Times DealBook Summit.
Disney sparked a war with Florida and Gov. Ron DeSantis over the topic of gender and sexuality for children in 2022.
The company opposed Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, which bars sexual orientation and gender identity teachings for grades K-3, now expanded to all grades under state law and education rules, with exceptions.
Iger recently said Disney ought to step back on some social issues and previously hinted the company wants to “quiet the noise” in the culture war.
And in July, DeSantis’ presidential campaign targeted Disney after Iger said the company isn’t “sexualizing kids.”
In the montage, Iger said, “The notion that Disney is in any way sexualizing children, quite frankly, is preposterous and inaccurate.”
One clip then featured a speaker saying “Hello and welcome to the Disney Plus ‘this is me pride celebration spectacular.’”
