Elon Musk’s X sues advertisers over boycott

WASHINGTON - Mr Elon Musk’s X sued an advertising group and several large corporations on Aug 6, accusing them of causing billions of dollars of losses by “illegally” boycotting the social media platform.

“We tried peace for two years, now it is war,” the billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX said on X, which he acquired in late 2022.

The antitrust suit, filed in a federal court in Texas, targets the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), Uniliver, Mars, CVS Health and Orsted, a Danish energy company.

It accuses WFA, through an initiative known as the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, of conspiring with the companies and others to “collectively withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue” from X, formerly Twitter.

A number of advertisers left Twitter following Mr Musk’s takeover amid concerns about the level of content moderation under the new ownership and Mr Musk’s own controversial musings on the site.

X chief executive officer Linda Yaccarino, in a video posted on the platform on Aug 6, said X was the victim of a “systematic illegal boycott”.

“They conspired to boycott X which threatens our ability to thrive in the future,” Ms Yaccarino said.

“No small group of people should be able to monopolise what gets monetised.”

X is seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages.

According to The New York Times, citing internal company documents, X earned US$114 million (S$151 million) in revenue in the US in the second quarter of 2024, down 25 per cent from the first quarter and down 53 per cent from the same period in 2023.

The lawsuit was filed one day after Mr Musk filed suit in California against OpenAI, accusing its co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman of betraying the artificial intelligence company’s founding mission.

Mr Musk invested in the San Francisco-based OpenAI in 2015, but left three years later.

He is accusing OpenAI, Mr Altman and Mr Brockman of fraud, conspiracy and false advertising. AFP