Elon Musk calls for “criminal prosecution” of Twitter/X ad boycott perpetrators
Elon Musk calls for “criminal prosecution” of Twitter/X ad boycott perpetrators
Congress accused advertisers group of colluding to tank X's revenue.
After the House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary released a report accusing the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) of colluding with companies to censor conservative voices online, Elon Musk chimed in. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Musk wrote that X "has no choice but to file suit against the perpetrators and collaborators" behind an advertiser boycott on his platform.
"Hopefully, some states will consider criminal prosecution," Musk wrote, leading several X users to suggest that Musk wants it to be illegal for brands to refuse to advertise on X.
Among other allegations, Congress' report claimed that GARM—which is part of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), whose members "represent roughly 90 percent of global advertising spend, or almost one trillion dollars annually"—directed advertisers to boycott Twitter shortly after Musk took over the platform.
Twitter/X's revenue tanked after Musk's takeover, with Bloomberg reporting last month that X lost almost 40 percent of revenue in the first six months of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. That's worse than prior estimates last May, which put Twitter's loss around one-third of its total valuation. Ars chronicled the worst impacts of the ad boycott, including sharp drop-offs in the US, where an internal Twitter presentation leaked to The New York Times showed Twitter's ad revenue was down by as much as 59 percent "for the five weeks from April 1 to the first week of May" in 2023.
Last year, Musk sued other "collaborators" in the X boycott, including hate speech researchers, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), and Media Matters for America (MMFA). However, his suit against the CCDH was dismissed this March, and Media Matters has claimed that Musk filing his MMFA lawsuit in Texas may be "fatal" because of a jurisdictional defect.
Let’s just start with deporting two illegal immigrants from South Africa and see how that feels first.
The video shows Kimbal talking about Zip2, the company Elon founded in 1995, and the challenge of raising money in the 1990s. The two men were amazed that anyone would invest $3 million in their company.
“In fact, when they did fund us, they realized that we were illegal immigrants,” Kimball says in the video.
“Well, I mean…” Elon says.
“Yes, we were,” Kimbal replies.
“I’d say it was a gray area,” Elon insists as the crowd laughs.
“We were illegal immigrants…” Kimbal says, continuing his story about how they were sleeping in an office when raising money from venture capitalists.
-Milken Institute interview, May 2013>
Everyone knows that only counts if you're brown
Man who claims hes a libertarian wants government to punish those who don't give him money.
For something that isn't a crime. Why are we feeding this troll attention? Let him fall off the face of the earth and all his "projects" fail.
He's also now donating to Trump, who I believe absolutely will punish people for Musk, if elected.
Oh, nonono. You simply misunderstood him, because he's such a genius. Didn't you hear that he thinks he is literally the smartest engineer alive on this planet? Surely he's not following suit of other nutjobs and simply trying to weaponize the judicial system in his favor because he essentially has unlimited money? This guy?? Nooooo...
But the free market....
To that we say... Go fuck yourself?
As earth is my witness, I promise I did not do any drugs before coming here.
Earth will know the truth!
If we go bankrupt, it's all those pesky customers running away. Just because we are Nazis. And now they are colluding against Nazism!
And now you know why he's donating to the Trump campaign.
Because with the shift of power with project 2025 he can actually do this.
I could have sworn I read that Musk was a free speech absolutist. Freedom for me but not for thee?
This is the case with literally every conservative crowing about "free speech". They want full freedom for themselves so that no matter what they say there can't be any negative consequences or reactions, and everybody else can get fucked and die in an extermination camp
Nope he's just a fascist hiding behind free speech.
Their obsession with “freeze peach” has always been a facade to their true desire which is to censor opposing viewpoints and make their viewpoints the only form of acceptable speech.
You’ll note that everything outside those bounds is “woke” and unacceptable
He certainly exercises his free speech to lie about his advocacy for free speech.
Musk wants freedom of speech for people. But his definition of "people" is very, very narrow.
I could of sworn I read that shit doesn't actually stink, but the pile of emperic evidence has led me to believe otherwise.
He only believes in the first 22 words of the first amendment. If you want to speak about what he has done, or (far worse) gather with others that share your beliefs to speak extra loud... straight to jail.
What’s this? Another petty tyrant king demanding taxes from his serfs? These billionaires are fucked up in the head. They can’t just sit back, killing their livers, getting drunk and wasted on drugs on their yachts. No, they have to bend the world to their will at the expense of everyone else living in it. Even then, that isn’t enough.
Didn't Musk tell his advertisers to leave the platform if they didn't like Twitter anymore? Wouldn't that alone make any tort dead upon filing?
Yeah it ties up a few billable hours but we're not exactly talking about companies that can't afford it.
If he doesn't like being blackmailed he could always just fund Twitter himself.
advertising is the only competitive market left. I guess its easier for his ego to rationalize that everyone is teaming up against him than admit he's a moron.
When a business blames its customers for choosing to no longer be its customers, it's a sure sign the business is declining. Depending on the severity, it's often a sign the business is failing.
This applies here, as well as any time you see an article that millennials are killing <business/industry/etc>. It also applies when an entertainer blames their (potential) audience for not enjoying their work. See Jerry Seinfeld, Kid Rock, etc.
No one owes your business any patronage.
Actually if we’re referring to twitter’s customers, Musk changed it so that the customers aren’t the advertisers any more, but the users.
It’s a really good move for the quality of the thing. It realigns twitter’s incentives to those of the users, whereas before twitter was only serving advertisers.
While I would generally agree with that statement (and gave you an up vote for it), I feel like Musk twisted that away from any normal business move.
For instance, many customers aren't paying for premium features. Rather, they were extorted into paying, because their professional lives depend on it.
And even after all that, it's not like it's catering to users on any level. No one is saying that Twitter is better now. Well, no one except the Russian bots and the Nazis.
Well I heard about a guy that told the collective advertisres of the platform to "go fuck themselves", maybe this guy should be investigated.
So this is the laser-like focus on the future of Tesla that 56 billion dollars bought, huh?
Such brilliant minds are truly beyond our understanding, clearly.
The neat thing is that if you have a 401k or mutual funds or whatever there’s a good chance your money voted to give this fuckwit his 56 billion. Looking at you, Vanguard.
They're afraid that Tesla's stock price under a rational CEO will suffer a market correction and drop to where it should be. In other words, they want to keep Musk out of fear and greed.
Man I'm super glad this guy can't run for president
For now. You know what the Supreme Court will be paid to do.
I can even outline it now. They will argue it violates the civil rights amendment which as it came later means it has higher priority over what came earlier. Then they will find some letter written by a random Founding Father arguing that the law should be written to only apply to members of nobility. There you go an Originalist argument against plain reading.
Musk wrote that X "has no choice but to file suit against the perpetrators and collaborators" behind an advertiser boycott on his platform.
So he's going to sue himself then?
If somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.
Elon Musk, 2023
I guess it was pretty clear. What a clown.
I was really hoping someone else said it already, but... is this really "Technology news"? It's about a billionaire and advertising on his social media website.
Social media's impact on society is relevant to technology. I would even say it is one of the most important questions in relation to technology today. So, how an owner tries to silence criticisms of his social media site for spreading fascism seems relevant to me.
New law, everyone must be nice to me :(
Boycotts are speech. Calling for boycotts is speech. I’ve been told by every corporate leader and the Supreme Court that spending money is a form of speech. I would think that a free speech advocate would appreciate these things. Of course, like all outspoken libertarians, Musk’s positions are not well considered, consistent, nor actually libertarian when it doesn’t suit his own business or ideological* interests. This dude sucks at everything he does and his success perfectly demonstrates the fallacy of meritocracy in this society.
- usually racist
everybody's a libertarian until they lose money
So that is why he is donating to the Trump campaign. Best to get in the list of people he wishes to be persecuted sooner than later. Apparently it's first come first serve.
Just as long as "serve" doesn't mean "pay" because then it's first come never serve.
Lol
Wasn’t he crying that he can’t be extorted with money or something? Fucking cry baby.
Dude literally told advertisers to go fuck themselves and is now like "well wait, I didn't mean it like that" lmao
Cute of him to think he is as valuable as Israel
What do you mean by this? Elon is shit but he still has more value than a genocidal state running on hate imo.
Israel lobby made it illegal for US companies and government workers to boycott israel.
~~https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Anti-Boycott_Act~~
I think I linked the wrong wiki
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/999
Here is the law.
Better wiki: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-BDS_laws
Looks like the criminal part is at the state level with 38 passing such laws.
Meanwhile, toilets lobby to jail everyone that refuses to eat out of them.
Thank god this muppet wasn't born in the US, or he would definetely be making a presidential run. Maybe he will just try and pull a Trump and disrespect the constitution and try and change rules to benefit himself personally.
He lost his shit some time ago, but still goes even more apeshit.
A pretty predictable outcome of extended drug use.
But if I call for slavers to get the blade, I'm somehow the bad guy.
Twitter are criminals who steal our computing with proprietary software.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
After the House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary released a report accusing the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) of colluding with companies to censor conservative voices online, Elon Musk chimed in.
There is no telling yet if Yaccarino's seeming support of GARM may strain her relationship with Musk, who has parted ways with several X executives during his reign over content moderation conflicts.
The Committee on the Judiciary reported that GARM may be violating the Sherman Act, which "makes unreasonable restraints of trade illegal," including certain cases when "group boycotts and coordinated actions" harm consumers.
This allegedly worked to "rob consumers of choices" and "is likely illegal under the antitrust laws," in addition to threatening "fundamental American freedoms," the committee's report said.
"GARM creates voluntary industry standards on brand safety and suitability which media sellers and ad tech companies can voluntarily adopt, adapt or reject.
"In consultation with legal counsel, WFA maintains robust and effective compliance policies designed to enhance competition," GARM told Ars.
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