Elon Musk-owned X files lawsuit against advertisers

The social media platform X, owned by Elon Musk, has filed a lawsuit against a group of advertisers and several major companies, alleging that they illegally boycotted the platform and caused a loss of revenue. X CEO Linda Yaccarino shared an open letter to advertisers on her social media account.

In her letter, Yaccarino announced that X has filed an antitrust lawsuit against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), and GARM members CVS Health, Mars, Orsted, and Unilever. Stating that she read the U.S. House Judiciary Committee's report titled "GARM's Harm" last month, Yaccarino noted that the report provided evidence of an illegal boycott against many companies, including X. Yaccarino stated that the illegal actions of these organizations and their executives have cost X billions of dollars.

The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Texas, alleges that the organizations in question "conspired to collectively withhold" billions of dollars in advertising revenue from the platform, formerly known as Twitter.

BOYCOTT HAD BEEN INITIATED

The lawsuit states that the boycott began in November 2022, following Musk's acquisition of Twitter. It was noted that the boycott was initiated due to concerns that Twitter's content and safety standards would be changed.

X's complaint included the assessment that "Collective action among competing advertisers to set brand safety standards to be implemented by social media platforms short-circuits the competitive process and allows the collective views of a group of advertisers with market power to override the interests of consumers."

Following Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter in 2022, the platform experienced a decline in advertising revenue.