August 6th, 2024

Elon Musk's X sues advertisers over alleged 'massive advertiser boycott'

Elon Musk's platform X has filed a lawsuit against several advertisers, alleging a coordinated boycott that violated antitrust laws and caused significant revenue losses since his acquisition of Twitter.

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Elon Musk's X sues advertisers over alleged 'massive advertiser boycott'

Elon Musk's social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has filed a lawsuit against several advertisers, claiming a "massive advertiser boycott" has resulted in significant revenue losses and violated antitrust laws. The lawsuit, submitted in a Texas federal court, targets the World Federation of Advertisers and companies including Unilever, Mars, CVS Health, and Orsted. X alleges that the advertising group's initiative, the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, coordinated a pause in advertising following Musk's acquisition of Twitter in late 2022. Musk expressed his frustration on X, stating that it is now "war" after two years of unsuccessful negotiations. X CEO Linda Yaccarino indicated that the lawsuit is partly based on evidence from a U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearing, which suggested a systematic boycott against X. The lawsuit focuses on events from the early days of Musk's ownership, rather than a more recent advertiser exodus that occurred in late 2023 due to concerns over content on the platform. Musk had previously accused fleeing advertisers of "blackmail." Unilever's president defended the company's advertising choices, asserting that it controls its own spending and that no platform is entitled to its advertising dollars.

- Elon Musk's X has sued advertisers for alleged antitrust violations related to a boycott.

- The lawsuit targets the World Federation of Advertisers and major companies like Unilever and Mars.

- Musk claims the boycott has cost X billions in revenue since his acquisition of Twitter.

- The lawsuit is based on evidence from a congressional hearing regarding advertising practices.

- Unilever's leadership has defended its right to choose advertising platforms based on brand safety.

Link Icon 7 comments
By @rideontime - 2 months
Maybe Gab, Gettr, and Truth Social can join in on the lawsuit.

e: Thought I was joking, but Rumble has indeed joined in. Looking forward to this video being played in court. https://x.com/yashar/status/1729993450001711475

By @jprd - 2 months
It amazes me the temper tantrums such rich people can have. The Bourbon court was more in-tune with other humans.
By @msie - 2 months
It sickens me whenever I read comments under one of Elon's posts on X. 99.9% of them are from followers deluded into thinking that Elon is a champion of free speech and he is saving democracy.
By @nabla9 - 2 months
From the COMPLAINT

> This is an antitrust action relating to a group boycott by competing advertisers of one of the most popular social media platforms in the United States.

...

>As a condition of GARM membership, GARM’s members agree to adopt, implement, and enforce GARM’s brand safety standards, including by withholding advertising from social media platforms deemed by GARM to be non-compliant with the brand safety standards

The gist of the lawsuit is

>GARM Members Agree to Follow and Enforce the Brand Safety Standards.

It's not that uncommon to have requirements for being a member of some business association. Antitrust against free association when the intent is to have industry standards?

By @ortusdux - 2 months
By @jsheard - 2 months
> In November 2023, about a year after Musk bought the company, a number of advertisers began fleeing X over concerns about their ads showing up next to pro-Nazi content and hate speech on the site in general, with Musk inflaming tensions with his own posts endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

It's still not hard to find posts which wouldn't be out of place on The Daily Stormer getting thousands of likes, on accounts with 100k+ followers, and going completely unchecked by the sites moderation. I don't think those advertisers are coming back.