Elon Musk's social media platform X has filed a lawsuit against a group of advertisers, alleging that a “massive advertiser boycott” led to a significant loss in revenue and violated antitrust laws. The lawsuit was filed in a federal court in Texas against the World Federation of Advertisers and member companies Unilever, Mars, CVS Health, and Orsted. The lawsuit claims that the advertising group's initiative, known as the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, played a role in coordinating a pause in advertising following Musk's acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022 and subsequent changes to its staff and policies.
Elon Musk, the CEO of X, took to the platform to express his stance on the lawsuit, stating that “now it is war” after what he described as two years of unreciprocated goodwill. X CEO Linda Yaccarino announced in a video that the lawsuit was partly based on evidence uncovered by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, which allegedly revealed that a “group of companies organized a systematic illegal boycott” against X.
The lawsuit comes in the wake of a hearing by the Republican-led committee to examine whether existing laws are adequate in deterring anticompetitive collusion in online advertising. The legal battle between X and the advertisers is poised to shed light on the complexities of antitrust laws and the implications of coordinated advertising boycotts in the digital landscape.
