X, Owned by Elon Musk, Brings Antitrust Suit Accusing Advertisers of a Boycott
X, Owned by Elon Musk, Brings Antitrust Suit Accusing Advertisers of a Boycott
The company claimed that members of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media coordinated to dissuade brands from advertising on X.
The company claimed that members of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media coordinated to dissuade brands from advertising on X.
X filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, a coalition of major advertisers, claiming that it had violated antitrust laws by coordinating with brands to dissuade them from spending money on the social media platform.
The suit, filed in federal court in Texas, claims that the coalition, known as GARM, “conspired” with leading brands, including CVS, Unilever, Mars and the Danish energy company Orsted, to “collectively withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue” that were owed to X, then known as Twitter, in the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media company in 2022.
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With the lawsuit, X effectively declared war on advertisers, which provide the bulk of the social media company’s revenue. Since Mr. Musk acquired the company and promised to usher in a new era of unfettered free speech, many advertisers have limited their spending on X, concerned by reports of rising hate speech and misinformation there. By pursuing legal action against GARM, Mr. Musk continued to break with the leaders of other social media companies, who have forged close relationships with advertisers and been responsive to their concerns about offensive online content.
He told them to fuck off, and is now but hurt that they took his advice.
Musk is literally that kid whose mom made you include him even though nobody liked him.
Yes, since Musk fired his PR team in 2020, things have gone steadily downhill for him. That was probably one of his worst decisions, considering how successful his PR team was in falsly portraying him as a tech genius and progressive visionary. Well, now it is clear to everyone that this was never even remotely true.
I wonder if he fired them because they weren't able to recover his image after that pedophile tweet on 2018. That's when I realized that giving him the benefit of the doubt might be a mistake. A public temper tantrum like that didn't just show that he wasn't any better than other billionaires, it showed he was likely worse because most of them don't let tirades like that show from behind closed doors, if they need them at all.
What an absolutely fantastic example of "fuck around and find out." Tell people to go fuck themselves, so they don't want anything to do with you, and then you cry about it. It's poetry.
His whole butt, even. With both Ts.
now it just sounds like a motorbutt
Capitalists when the free market doesn’t do what they want.
Vote with your dollar! No! Not like that!
Musk is being a little bitch about the free market?
He is really weird.
can't wait for the clip we're the lawyer says "Your Honor, exhibit A is a video clip of Mr Musk telling advertisers to, and I quote: 'fuck off'"
That's dumb AF. Boycotts are legal. 🤦♂️
And corporations are not entitled to advertising revenue.
That was my first thought. Since when boycotting (aka not choosing) something is illegal?
I suppose if he could show that a bunch of advertisers agreed to pull their ads together, he might have a case for an illegal anti-competition agreement. But I don't think that's the case. They all decided, independently, that they didn't want to be a part of his shit show.
Guess what, Melon Husk... they aren't required to associate with you and can quite publicly boycott you, if they like.
They like the free market until it works against them. Capitalists are glories conmen.
The fact that this bizarre and insane "lawsuit" is being brought in Texas should be concerning. If he gets a conservative enough judge, neither the law nor the facts will matter at all.
Maybe, but regardless of the outcome of this case, how many advertisers are going to want to advertise on Twitter if they find out he'll sue them for not advertising on Twitter anymore?
Excellent point. I hope this scares the few remaining advertisers away for good.
Makes me wonder how much farther this shit can go before the legal system fractures when enough people say they don't give a fuck what any Texas judges have to say and if they have to pull business entirely out of Texas, so be it.
Billionaires suing billionaires in a corrupt legal system. What could go wrong?
Yeah, but he's using a coalition of big companies. Their pockets are probably just as deep as his if not more.
The only point of this is to elevate the Global Alliance for Responsible Media in the right-wing propaganda machine to try to get companies to distance themselves from it. Don't take bullshit suits like this at face value
Edit: Woke up this morning to multiple Republicans in Congress calling for "investigations" into GARM
Why the fuck do people still use twitter?
Has Musk ever proceeded with one of his lawsuits till the end? Seems like he just sues people, gets the headlines and then drops out lol
That's exactly what this is
"I can do whatever the shit I want and you still have to advertise with me OK" sounds like how an extremely spoiled and self centred kid would behave with his/her parents.
Watch companies now blacklisting Musk on every product.
there are like 15 billionaires out there all conspiring together not to give me over a million dollars. I can sue them for trust activity right?
Why doesn't anyone like me? I know, I'll sue them I to liking me and then I will have all of the monies - Elon
What a dumb dumb.
Act like a racist, win racist prizes.
“We want a free market!”
“Wait, not like that”
"Free to me, not free to them!"
I gotta think he is represented by Bob Loblaw
Bob Loblaw wouldn't take this case. I'm not even sure Barry would touch it.
No touching!
I'm super confused. How can you sue people for not using your service??? If that was true, they wouldn't have had to shoot MLK, they would have just sued him into the ground.
I'm going to sue X for not advertising on my platform. It's just $1000 a week for a sign on my fridge, my entire family will see it daily!
By pursuing legal action against GARM, Mr. Musk continued to break with the leaders of other social media companies, who have forged close relationships with advertisers and been responsive to their concerns about offensive online content.
This is the most journalist way of saying "This guy is a fucking idiot."
laugh all you want, but YOU are next, former Twitter users who refused to pay for their blue badge and had the gall to move to Mastodon or others!
Can't they just bring in a video of him telling advertisers to "go fuck yourself" and get this thrown out? Or would that just add Musk as a co-defendant?
This shit sounds like flavor text on an item in a post-dystopian futuristic video have (the first Horizon game's news clips come to mind)
LOL
Dude looks like a taller Syndrome from the first Incredible movie.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/06/technology/x-antitrust-suit-advertisers-elon-musk.html