X Corp., the Elon Musk-owned tech company that owns X (formerly Twitter), is suing a group of advertisers, alleging the advertisers conspired to “withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue” from the social media platform.
The lawsuit, which was filed today in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, as spotted by The New York Times, argues that the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), four of its members: CVS Health, Mars, Orsted, and Unilever, and the World Federation of Advertisers, accusing this coalition of advertisers for pausing advertisements on X after it was acquired by Musk in 2022.
We tried peace for 2 years, now it is war https://t.co/elgT62uDtF
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 6, 2024
“We tried peace for 2 years, now it is war,” Musk wrote in a post published today on X/Twitter. X CEO Linda Yaccarino also published an open letter on X/Twitter, announcing the company’s plan for legal action against these advertisers. Yaccarino cited the House Judiciary Committee’s report on GARM and how the organization sought to control online speech.
The House Judiciary’s report notes that evidence it obtained showed “that GARM and its members directly organized boycotts and used other indirect tactics to target disfavored platforms, content creators, and news organizations in an effort to demonetize and, in effect, limit certain choices for consumers.”
In a separate post, Yaccarino published a video explaining the company’s decision to sue these advertisers for their alleged co-conspiring to withhold ads and ad revenue from X/Twitter. “They conspire to boycott X, which threatens our ability to thrive in the future,” 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.”
A Message to X Users pic.twitter.com/6bZOYPhWVa
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) August 6, 2024
This is not the first lawsuit X Corp. has filed over the issue of an advertiser exodus on X/Twitter as the company announced in November that it was suing 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 polarizing 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, the lax moderation policies are among the frequent criticisms of X/Twitter since Musk purchased the social media platform.
Source: IGN
