Elon Musk once told advertisers — including Disney — who pulled their ad dollars from X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, to “go to hell.” Now X is suing a trade group and several advertisers, alleging they conspired to withhold “billions” of dollars in ad spending over concerns that X would “deviate from certain brand safety standards for advertising.”
X’s lawyers filed the lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. A copy of the lawsuit is available here (via The New York Times).
“We’ve been trying for two years for peace, now it’s war,” Musk wrote on X about the lawsuit.
Musk cited a post by X CEO Linda Yaccarino titled “An Open Letter to Advertisers,” which said in part: “Simply put, people get hurt when the marketplace of ideas is undermined and some viewpoints are defunded at the expense of others as part of an illegal boycott… The illegal behavior of these organizations and their executives costs billions of dollars.”
X's lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages and “injunctive relief under U.S. antitrust laws.” According to the lawsuit, an initiative by industry trade group the World Federation of Advertisers called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) represents a conspiracy — joined by dozens of advertisers — “to withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue” from X.
The lawsuit comes just over a month after X announced that the company had “re-established our relationship with the Global Alliance for Responsible Media @wfamarketers. As of today, X is included as a member of #GARM… X is committed to the safety of our global city square and is proud to be part of the GARM community!”
According to X's lawsuit, “As a condition of GARM membership, GARM members agree to adopt, implement, and enforce GARM's Brand Safety Standards, including blocking advertising on social media platforms that GARM deems inconsistent with the Brand Safety Standards.”
The lawsuit alleged that major brand advertisers — including Unilever, Mars Inc., CVS Health, and renewable energy company Ørsted, which were named as defendants — agreed to comply with GARM standards “by abruptly and simultaneously boycotting Twitter by ceasing or significantly reducing their previously significant ad purchases from Twitter.”
Representatives for the Women's Federation of Australia, Unilever, Mars, CVS Health and Orsted did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The lawsuit said the “illegal conduct” alleged by X is the subject of “active investigation” by the House Judiciary Committee. The committee’s interim report, released July 10, concluded that “the extent to which GARM has organized its trade association and coordinated actions that deprive consumers of choice is likely illegal under antitrust laws and threatens fundamental American freedoms. The information revealed to date about collusive conduct between WFA and GARM to suppress monetization of unfavorable content is troubling.”
