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Elon Musk sues advertisers because they won’t do business with X
Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) is suing a group of advertisers for conspiring to withhold billions of dollars in ad revenue, claiming they are boycotting the platform and putting it at risk.
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Elon Musk’s X (aka the thing formerly known as Twitter before he bought it and broke it) is suing a bunch of advertisers, claiming they conspired to withhold billions of dollars in ad revenue.
The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of Texas, targets the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) and four of its members: CVS Health, Mars, Orsted, Unilever, and the World Federation of Advertisers.
Musk declared “it is war” in a post on X/Twitter.
X CEO Linda Yaccarino also got in on the action, publishing an open letter and what looked like a poorly made hostage video explaining the company’s decision to sue these advertisers for their alleged co-conspiracy to withhold ads and ad revenue from X/Twitter.
“They conspire to boycott X, which threatens our ability to thrive in the future,” Yaccarino explained in the video. “That puts your global town square, the one place you can express yourself freely and openly at long-term risk. People are hurt when the marketplace of ideas is constricted.”
As Nilay Patel, The Verge’s editor-in-chief, pointed out on Threads, “Twitter suing advertising trade orgs for withholding revenue as an antitrust argument might be the stupidest Elon lawsuit yet, no wonder he made Linda the face of it.”
And tech writer Casey Newton noted on Threads, “over on X, Linda Yaccarino just announced the company is suing advertisers for “illegally boycotting” the platform. “Apparently X believes you have a legal obligation to spend money there”
Post by @reckless1280View on Threads
This is not the first time X Corp. has filed a lawsuit over the issue of an advertiser exodus on X/Twitter.
In November, the company sued the left-wing watchdog group Media Matters for America after it published a report about X placing ads from companies such as Apple and IBM in front of antisemitic content.
That particular lawsuit argues that the nonprofit organization is legally liable for X/Twitter losing advertising revenue.
In July 2023, X Corp filed a separate lawsuit against the research nonprofit group Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), claiming that the organization “embarked on a scare campaign” to drive away advertisers on X/Twitter.
Musk’s acquisition of X/Twitter has been a complete disaster since he acquired the social media platform.
From the removal of checkmarks and paywalling them behind a subscription service to multiple reports and studies showing an increase in hate speech, lax moderation policies have been among the frequent criticisms of X/Twitter since Musk purchased the social media platform.
But this entire suit is absolutely hilarious to me. After telling a room of advertisers to basically “F” themselves, he’s now pushing the CEO of his company in front of a camera to tell the world how it’s illegal that people who don’t like him have to spend their money on his platform.
And mind you, this is all about ads. They’re not doing its users any favors by getting those advertisers back on the platform. Talking about ads is the most unsexiest thing any of us can do. But hey, apparently, X loves to lose money, so this is completely on brand.
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Editors’ Recommendations:
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- More NSFW content is coming to X (Twitter), so expect more bots
- Marc Cuban slams Twitter as Elon Musk’s echo chamber
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