Elon Musk said that he plans to sue media watchdog Media Matters for America over the organization's claims that X (formerly Twitter) was running ads for pro-Nazi and white nationalists, Variety reported.
Elon Musk vs. advertisers
On Nov. 17, Disney, Comcast/NBCUniversal, Lionsgate, Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery said they were halting X ads. A day earlier, IBM said it was also pausing its ad spending on the social platform. Apple was said to do the same according to Axios.
Musk posted on X late Friday night, “The split second court open on Monday, X Corp. will be filing a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and ALL those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company.”
He continued to say that he will also file a lawsuit against “Their board, their donors, their network of dark money, all of them…”
X Safety post
According to a blog post on X, Media Matters used an alternate account and cherry picked posts and ads that appeared on the account to “misinform advertisers about the placement of their posts. These contrived experiences could be applied to any platform.”
Media Matters president Angelo Carusone said in a statement, “Far from the free speech advocate he claims to be, Musk is a bully who threatens meritless lawsuits in an attempt to silence reporting that he even confirmed is accurate. Musk admitted the ads at issue ran alongside the pro-Nazi content we identified. If he does sue us, we will win.”
On Nov. 16, the research group released a report stating that five brands, Apple, IBM, Bravo (owned by NBCUniversal), Orace and Comcast's Xfinity had ads run alongside posts that “tout Hitler and his Nazi Party” on Musk's X. The day after, Media Matters published another reported that said it found advertising for Action Network, Amazon, Catalyst (NBCUniversal) and Club for Growth also next to white supremacists hashtags such as KeepEuropeWhite, white pride and WLM (White Lives Matter).
Earlier on Friday, the White House condemned Musk for encouraging “antisemitic and racist hate.” This was prompted when he agreed with an X user who posted that Jewish communities “have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.”
The now-deleted X post also stated that they were “deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest s**t now about western Jewish populations” facing “hordes of minorities that support flooding their country.”
The blog post that Musk shared on his own X account titled “Stand with X to protect free speech” claimed that “X will protect the public’s right to free expression.” It further elaborated that the company will not be deterred from their vision by “agenda-driven activists, or even our own profits.”
“Everyone has a choice on X. User and brand control on X is superior to a year ago, ” the post continued.
The post concluded with, “Data wins over allegations. Media Matters does not reflect the user experience on X.”
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