Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, has initiated a lawsuit against a prominent group of advertisers, alleging a “massive advertiser boycott” that resulted in substantial revenue losses and violated antitrust laws.
The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, August 6, in a federal court in Texas, targets the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and its member companies: Unilever, Mars, CVS Health, Orsted, Disney, and Walmart. The WFA’s initiative, the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), is also implicated in the suit.
X, formerly known as Twitter, claims that GARM conspired with its members to withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue following Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in late 2022, which included significant changes to staff and policies. Musk, expressing his frustration, posted on X, “We tried peace for 2 years, now it is war.”
X CEO Linda Yaccarino, in a video and article titled “A Message to X Users,” attributed the lawsuit partly to evidence uncovered by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. The Republican-led committee’s report, “GARM’s Harm,” alleges that GARM and its members directly organized boycotts and used other tactics to target specific platforms and content creators, effectively limiting consumer choices. g2022 Yaccarino claimed that the illegal actions of these organizations and their executives cost X billions of dollars.
The lawsuit focuses on the initial period following Musk’s takeover of Twitter and not the more recent advertiser exodus. In November 2023, advertisers began fleeing X due to concerns over ads appearing next to pro-Nazi content and hate speech on the platform.
Musk’s own posts endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory exacerbated the situation. He later accused these advertisers of “blackmail” and told them to “go f*ck yourself.”
Featured Image courtesy of DADO RUVIC/REUTERS
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