Billionaire Elon Musk is taking a group of advertisers to court alleging they unlawfully boycotted his social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
The antitrust lawsuit takes aim at GARM (Global Alliance for Responsible Media), the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), and GARM members CVS Health, Mars, Orsted and Unilever for “coercive exercise of market power”.
Advertisers did withdraw, over concerns for brand safety, from then Twitter when Musk took the platform private in 2022 and said he would champion free speech by easing content restrictions.
“We tried peace for two years, now it is war,” said Musk on X.
The US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee found evidence that GARM and its members directly “organised boycotts and used other indirect tactics to target disfavored platforms, content creators, and news organisations in an effort to demonetise and, in effect, limit certain choices for consumers”.
Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X Corp, said the illegal behavior of these organisations and their executives cost X billions of dollars.
“This behavior is a stain on a great industry, and cannot be allowed to continue,” she said in a video statement.
Yaccarino said X had met and surpassed the requests made by advertisers and groups such as GARM for new tools, both to improve advertiser controls and effectiveness.
“We have proven our platform provides advertisers a way to showcase their brands and reach their target audiences safely, efficiently and effectively,” she said.
“That’s why I’ve worked in good faith with marketers across the globe to showcase our innovations and allay any concerns with brands whom I’ve partnered with for decades.
“The unfortunate reality is that despite all our efforts, hundreds of meetings and research to the contrary, many companies chose to dismiss the facts.
“To those who broke the law, we say enough is enough. We are compelled to seek justice for the harm that has been done by these and potentially additional defendants, depending what the legal process reveals.
“It's also clear that there are likely others who suffered at the hands of this activity. This case is about more than damages - we have to fix a broken ecosystem that allows this illegal activity to occur.”
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