Musk’s X sues liberal advocacy group Media Matters over its report on ads next to hate groups’ posts
Elon Musk’s social media company destroy. Corp.”
Advertisers have fled the site formerly known as Twitter over concerns about their ads appearing next to pro-Nazi content – and hate speech on the site in general – while billionaire owner Musk has stoked tensions with his own posts claiming he endorses an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.
IBM, NBCUniversal and parent company Comcast said last week they were stopping advertising on X after the Media Matters report said their ads appeared next to material praising Nazis. It was another setback as the platform tries to win back major brands and their advertising dollars, X’s main source of revenue.
The Media Matters report pointed to Apple and Oracle ads also placed next to anti-Semitic material on X. On Friday it also said it found ads from Amazon, NBA Mexico, NBCUniversal and others alongside white nationalist hashtags.
But San Francisco-based X says in its complaint filed in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, that Media Matters “knowingly” displayed ads next to hateful material “as if this was what typical
The nonprofit, X claims, “manipulated algorithms that control the user experience on that these combinations are anything but what they really are. are: manufactured, inorganic and extremely rare.”
Media Matters, based in Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment Monday. In an earlier statement, President Angelo Carusone said: “In recent days, Musk has made baseless legal threats, advanced outlandish conspiracy theories and lobbied vicious personal attacks against his ‘enemies’ online.”
Carusone added that Media Matters will continue its work. “If he sues us, we will win,” he said.
Advertisers have been skittish about X since Musk’s takeover over a year ago.
Musk has also sparked outrage this month with his own posts responding to a user who accused Jews of hating white people and professing indifference to anti-Semitism. “You said the real truth,” Musk tweeted in a response last Wednesday.
Musk has faced accusations of tolerating anti-Semitic posts on the platform since he bought it last year, and content on
X CEO Linda Yaccarino said the company’s “position has always been very clear that discrimination by everyone must STOP across the board.”
“I think this is something we can and should all agree on,” she wrote on the platform last week.