From yesterday's opinion by Judge Reed O'Connor (N.D. Tex.) in X Corp. v. Media Matters for America:
Plaintiff alleges that Defendants knowingly and maliciously fabricated side-by-side images of various advertisers' posts on Plaintiff's social media platform X depicted next to neo-Nazi or other extremist content, and portrayed these designed images as if they were what the average user experiences on the X platform. Plaintiff asserts that Defendants proceeded with this course of action in an effort to publicly portray X as a social media platform dominated by neo-Nazism and anti-Semitism, and thereby alienate major advertisers, publishers, and users away from the X platform, intending to harm it….
As the Court must accept all well-pleaded facts in the complaint as true and view them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, for the reasons that follow, Defendants' Motion [to Dismiss] is DENIED….
[1.] Tortious Interference with Contract
To allege a prima facie case of tortious interference with existing contractual relations, a plaintiff must plead "(1) an existing contract subject to interference, (2) a willful and intentional act of interference with the contract, (3) that proximately caused the plaintiff's injury, and (4) caused actual damages or loss."
Plaintiff has provided sufficient allegations to survive dismissal. Plaintiff has factually alleged: the existence of contracts subject to interference; intentional acts of interference; and proximate causation. It cannot reasonably be disputed that Plaintiff has named parties who contracted for paid ads on X. Media Matters' reporting has acknowledged as much….
