Elon Musk tried to woo advertisers back to the social media giant X on Wednesday, walking back his challenge last year that some companies should go fuck themselves for pausing their ad buys at the time.

Musk spoke at the annual Cannes Lions advertising festival in France on Wednesday, saying his comments last November were meant to protect free speech on the platform, formerly known as Twitter.

First of all, it wasnt to advertisers as a whole. It was with respect to freedom of speech, Musk told the crowd. It is important to have a global free speech platform where people with a wide range of opinions can voice their views. In some cases there were advertisers who were insisting on censorship.

Were going to support free speech rather than agree to be censored for money, he went on.