Elon Musk’s X has amended its existing advertising lawsuit to include additional major brands, accusing them of participating in an illegal advertising boycott following Musk’s acquisition of the company in 2022.
NPR reports that in a federal court filing in Texas on Saturday, Elon Musk’s expanded its ongoing lawsuit against the World Federation of Advertisers and several companies, including CVS and Amazon’s Twitch. The amended complaint now includes additional defendants such as Lego, Nestlé, Tyson Foods, Abbott Laboratories, Colgate-Palmolive, Pinterest, and Shell International.
The lawsuit alleges that the World Federation of Advertisers, concerned about X potentially straying from its brand safety initiative called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), orchestrated a large-scale pause in advertising on the platform. As a result, at least 18 GARM-affiliated advertisers reportedly stopped buying ads on X either in the U.S. or globally in the weeks following Musk’s acquisition of the company in November 2022. Other GARM members are said to have “substantially reduced” their ad spending on the platform during this period.
X’s lawyers argue that the alleged boycott has deprived the company of billions of dollars in advertising revenue, with the ramifications continuing to be felt years later. They contend that in a competitive market, social media platforms should have the freedom to set their own brand safety standards that are optimal for their specific platform, without the collective action of advertisers dictating these standards and overriding consumer interests. This especially applies to woke companies trying to force social media platforms to toe the same political line.
Since acquiring X, Musk has significantly reshaped the platform’s approach to content moderation. He has reinstated accounts previously barred for violating the platform’s rules and has removed contract content moderators, the company’s human rights team, and investigators tasked with curbing political manipulation and child sexual abuse material.
Following the initial lawsuit, the World Federation of Advertisers discontinued GARM operations, stating that the allegations had caused a distraction and drained the organization’s resources and finances. The newly added defendants have not yet publicly responded to the amended complaint.
Read more at NPR here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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