{"id":6338,"date":"2024-08-07T15:03:03","date_gmt":"2024-08-07T15:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/07\/its-war-elon-musks-x-sues-companies-for-not-advertising-on-its-platform\/"},"modified":"2024-08-07T15:03:03","modified_gmt":"2024-08-07T15:03:03","slug":"its-war-elon-musks-x-sues-companies-for-not-advertising-on-its-platform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/07\/its-war-elon-musks-x-sues-companies-for-not-advertising-on-its-platform\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s war\u2019: Elon Musk\u2019s X sues companies for not advertising on its platform"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elon Musk’s X has launched legal action against a string of companies after they stopped advertising on the social network.<\/p>\n

The tech giant, formerly known as Twitter, alleges the firms unlawfully conspired to boycott the site and caused it to lose “billions of dollars” in revenue.<\/p>\n

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The lawsuit was filed in Texas against the World Federation of Advertisers and member companies British multinational Unilever, food giant Mars, CVS Health and Danish renewable energy company Orsted.<\/p>\n

Musk wrote on X: “We tried peace for two years, now it is war.”<\/p>\n

It comes after advertising revenue at X slumped after Musk bought and renamed the social network<\/strong> for $44bn (\u00a335bn) in 2022.<\/p>\n

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Within days of taking over, Musk made thousands of employees redundant <\/strong>– including many moderation staff tasked with removing harmful content.<\/p>\n

Companies also halted advertising on the site in November 2023 following concerns their content was showing up next to pro-Nazi posts, with X’s owner also accused of spreading hate speech.<\/p>\n

Musk later apologised for endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory<\/strong> but also told advertisers to “go f*** yourself”.<\/p>\n

The tech billionaire has come under growing criticism over his running of the site, which most recently has been blamed for failing to tackle misinformation spread during the riots<\/strong> in England.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit claims the advertisers – acting through a World Federation of Advertisers initiative called Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) – colluded in a way that violated US anti-trust laws.<\/p>\n

The scheme was launched in 2019 to “help the industry address the challenge of illegal or harmful content on digital media platforms and its monetisation via advertising”.<\/p>\n

X is seeking unspecified damages, as well as a court order against any continued efforts to conspire to withhold advertising spending.<\/p>\n

It said it has applied brand-safety standards that are comparable to those of its competitors and that “meet or exceed” measures specified by GARM.<\/p>\n

Read more:
Why has Elon Musk waded into discussion about UK riots?<\/strong><\/p>\n

X’s chief executive Linda Yaccarino said: “People are hurt when the marketplace of ideas is constricted. No small group of people should monopolise what gets monetised.”<\/p>\n

Professor Christine Bartholomew, an anti-trust expert from Buffalo University, said X would have to prove there was an agreement to boycott joined by each advertiser, which she described as “no small hurdle”.<\/p>\n

She added that even if the case was successful, Musk<\/strong> could not legally force companies to advertise on X.<\/p>\n

The firms accused by X are yet to comment on the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

However, Unilever, which owns brands including Dove, Persil and Wall’s, told a hearing in Congress last month it only advertised on platforms that did not harm its brand.<\/p>\n

The company’s president Herrish Patel said in a statement: “Unilever, and Unilever alone, controls our advertising spending. No platform has a right to our advertising dollar.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on sky.com<\/div>\n

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