X chief Elon Musk has sued media watchdog Media Matters for America, days after several companies paused advertising on the social media platform over a report which alleged that a host of their ads were featuring alongside anti-semitic content.
In its lawsuit lodged in Texas, X has alleged that Media Matters “manipulated” data and algorithms, and fabricated posts to drive away advertisers, and “destroy” the social media platform.
Musk tweeted a court order stating that the attorney general of Texas had launched an investigation into the media watchdog over “potential fraudulent activity”.
Fraud has both civil & criminal penalties pic.twitter.com/BdC5Zfr1XM
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 21, 2023
X said Media Matters had bypassed “safeguards” to “create images of X’s largest advertisers’ paid posts adjacent to racist, incendiary content”.
“Media Matters knowingly and maliciously manufactured side-by-side images depicting advertisers’ posts on X Corp’s social media platform beside Neo-Nazi and white-nationalist fringe content and then portrayed these manufactured images as if they were what typical X users experience on the platform,” said the suit.
Reacting to the lawsuit, Media Matters said it “meant to bully X’s critics”. The advocacy group had reported last week that corporate ads from IBM, Apple, Oracle and Comcast’s Xfinity were appearing alongside anti-semitic content.
The report had come after Musk endorsed an X user’s post claiming that Jews were fuelling hostility towards the white people.
Amid the controversy, X CEO Linda Yaccarino came to the platform’s defence and emphasised “not a single authentic user” had seen commercial ads next to pro-Nazi content.
If you know me, you know I'm committed to truth and fairness. Here's the truth. Not a single authentic user on X saw IBM’s, Comcast’s, or Oracle’s ads next to the content in Media Matters’ article. Only 2 users saw Apple’s ad next to the content, at least one of which was Media…
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) November 20, 2023
So far, several giants including Disney, Apple, Comcast, IBM, Lionsgate, NBCUniversal, Paramount, Sony, Ubisoft and Warner Bros have withdrawn their ads from the platform.
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