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Elon Musk’s X is suing a major marketing industry trade body and advertisers including Unilever and Mars over an “illegal boycott” of the platform that it says violates antitrust laws, in a dramatic escalation of the dispute between the billionaire and some of the social media app’s most valuable sources of revenue.
In a blog post Tuesday, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said the company has filed a lawsuit against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, a coalition of brands and advertising agencies, as well as Garm members, including consumer goods groups Unilever and Mars and U.S. drugstore chain CVS Health.
“We tried peace for 2 years, now it’s war,” Musk said in a post X.
Garm and the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The lawsuit was filed aVsceker the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee released a report last month alleging that Garm and his members had “colluded” to boycott Twitter aVsceker its acquisition by Musk, limiting consumer choice in violation of antitrust laws.
Such claims have been denied by Garm co-founder Rob Rakowitz, while others argue that brands have the right to decide where to invest their advertising dollars.
“The implication, perhaps the intent, of this boycott was to try to deprive X users, whether they are sports fans, gamers, journalists, activists, parents, or political and business leaders, of Global Town Square,” Yaccarino said Tuesday.
“To put it simply, people are hurt when the marketplace of ideas is undermined and certain viewpoints are not funded as much as others as part of an illegal boycott,” Yaccarino said, adding that “the illegal behavior of these organizations and their leaders costs X billion dollars.”
Garm is a cross-industry initiative founded in 2019 by the World Federation of Advertisers to “help the industry address the challenge of illegal or harmful content on digital media platforms and their monetization through advertising,” according to its website. Membership is voluntary.
The lawsuit further deepens the riVscek between Musk and advertisers concerned about the proliferation of toxic and hateful content on the platform, as well as his tendency to publicly lash out at them.
Shortly before Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of the platform in October 2022, Garm warned the Tesla boss that keeping the platform free of inappropriate material was “non-negotiable.”
However, following the acquisition, dozens of large advertisers cut their spending on X, causing a 50 percent drop in advertising revenue aVsceker Musk relaxed his moderation policies and reduced his security staff.
Many have not returned to the platform. Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” late last year hurled insults at those who had stopped spending, including Apple, Walt Disney, IBM, Comcast, and Warner Bros.
It also marks a turnaround for Yaccarino, a Madison Avenue veteran previously known for her close relationships with brands. The Financial Times has previously reported that there have been tensions between Musk and Yaccarino as the latter has struggled to stabilize the platform’s financial health.
Musk has been accused of inflaming racial tensions in the UK this week aVsceker saying on his platform that “civil war is inevitable” following riots across the country. The comments risk further alienating brands and have angered British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, whose spokesman said on Monday: “There is no justification for comments like this.”
Responding to a post by Starmer promising to protect Muslim communities following attacks by far-right protesters, Musk also responded: “Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on all communities?”
On Tuesday, Musk continued to criticize the prime minister’s handling of the unrest in a series of posts addressed to his 193 million followers.
Last November, X reinstated the account of British far-right activist and co-founder of the English Defence League, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson, who had been posting comments and videos of the riots on the site.
Before Musk’s acquisition, Robinson had been banned from what was then Twitter in 2018 for violating its policies on hateful conduct.
