Update:
- Watchdog group Media Matters for America asked a Texas federal judge to dismiss a X Corp. filed against it claiming it drove advertisers from the social media website via a “blatant smear campaign.”
- Media Matters argues X has no jurisdiction, venue or claims for the complaint and the fact consumers in Texas could access the article at the center of the dispute was not enough to establish jurisdiction.
- X claims Media Matters smeared it with an article alleging the company formerly known as Twitter placed neo-Nazi and antisemitic content next to advertisers’ paid posts.
X advertiser loss lawsuit overview:
- Who: X Corp., the company that owns the social media site formerly known as Twitter, filed a lawsuit against Media Matters for America over a story the nonprofit wrote about white supremacy on X.com.
- Why: X Corp. claims Media Matters knowingly and maliciously manufactured images of advertisers’ content next to neo-Nazi and white supremacist content in an attempt to drive advertisers from the platform.
- Where: The X advertiser loss lawsuit was filed in federal court in Texas.
(Nov. 29, 2023)
Media Matters for America is facing a lawsuit from X Corp. claiming that the nonprofit maliciously manufactured images of advertisers’ content next to neo-Nazi and white supremacist content on X.com, formerly known as Twitter, in an attempt to drive advertisers away from the platform and destroy X Corp.
Media Matters has written 20 stories on Elon Musk and X Corp. in November in what X Corp. calls a “smear campaign.”
Media Matters has written claims that X is a risky, unsafe platform for advertisers despite X Corp.’s claim that 99% of measured ad placement this year has appeared next to content scoring above the Global Alliance for Responsible Media’s brand safety floor.
“Undeterred by the truth, Media Matters has opted for new tactics in its campaign to drive advertisers from X,” the X advertiser loss lawsuit says. “Media Matters has manipulated the algorithms governing the user experience on X to bypass safeguards and create images of X’s largest advertisers’ paid posts adjacent to racist, incendiary content, leaving the false impression that these pairings are anything but what they actually are: manufactured, inorganic, and extraordinarily rare.”
Apple, Comcast, NBCUniversal, IBM withdrew all ads from X after story on ad pairings, lawsuit says
The X advertisers lawsuit claims Media Matters altered its feed and endlessly scrolled and refreshed in an attempt to find advertiser content next to white supremacist content. The lawsuit calls this “inauthentic activity,” and claims it generated 13 to 15 times more advertisements per hour than an average user.
“The advertisers targeted took these pairings to be anything but rare and inorganic, with all but one of the companies featured in the Media Matters piece withdrawing all ads from X, including Apple, Comcast, NBCUniversal and IBM — some of X’s largest advertisers,” the X advertisers lawsuit claims, noting Oracle did not remove advertisements.
X Corp. filed a separate lawsuit in August against a hate speech watchdog, claiming the nonprofit organization unlawfully gained access to protected data so it could “cherry-pick” posts to falsely show the platform is rife with harmful content.
Do you believe X’s claims against Media Matters for America? Let us know in the comments.
The plaintiff is represented by John C. Sullivan of SL Law PLLC and Judd E. Stone II and Christopher D. Hilton of Stone Hilton PLLC.
The X advertiser loss lawsuit is X Corp. v. Media Matters for America, et al., Case No. 4:23-cv-01175-P, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas Fort Worth Division.
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