Ever since Elon Musk acquired Twitter, renamed it X and began transforming it into a smaller version of 4chan, his relationship with the platform and the advertising industry has been strained. Advertisers especially dislike controversy, and Musk is very good at attracting it.
Last November, Musk consistently offended a group of people and then told advertisers considering pulling content from his site that they could “fuck off.” He clarified that if companies or advertising executives find him or his site objectionable, they should divest themselves and move the revenue elsewhere.
Well, less than a year later, Musk’s company is now suing a group of advertisers who diverted their revenue elsewhere. As it turned out, X had lost a lot of advertising money over the past two years, putting the company in serious trouble. A recent New York Times article said the company’s ad revenue was down 53% from last year. Now, the company has announced a lawsuit against a consortium of advertisers, some of whom pulled their content from the site following Musk’s acquisition.
The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, targets various members of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM). “. Make money through advertising. ” Essentially, GARM is designed to dissuade companies from supporting platforms that may be problematic from a brand perspective.
The new lawsuit alleges that GARM helped enable a “boycott” of X, encouraging brands to shun it because of its controversial content and leadership status. This comes after the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by conservative Freedom Caucus leader Jim Jordan, released a report accusing GARM of violating antitrust laws by “monetizing unpopular content in the name of brand safety.” “. “. X The lawsuit alleges that “GARM expressed concerns to its members about Twitter’s compliance with GARM standards, triggering” a “massive advertiser boycott.” Through this process, GARM helped the platform “collectively withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue,” the lawsuit claims.
On Tuesday, X CEO Linda Yacharrina posted a video on the platform in which she announced the lawsuit and addressed advertisers directly.
Message to user X pic.twitter.com/6bZOYPhWVa
— Linda Yacarino (@lindayaX) August 6, 2024
Yakarina also published an “open letter” to advertisers, in which she laid out her reasoning behind the lawsuit.
“Simply put, people are harmed when the marketplace of ideas is disrupted and certain views are not funded as part of an illegal boycott,” Yacarina said. “This behavior is a stain on a great industry, It cannot be allowed to continue.”
Musk’s performance was particularly dramatic.
“For two years we’ve been trying to be nice and getting nothing but empty words,” Musk wrote on Twitter. “Now it’s war.”
It can be said that Musk is a busy man. In addition to helping re-elect Donald Trump as president, he is now waging a war on the industry that funds his social media platforms. The interesting part here is assuming that the advertisers or the companies they represent have any unique ideological preferences, as opposed to what seems more likely: their single-minded focus on making money, which prevents them from wanting to be in an unpopular Promote their products on the website.
Gizmodo reached out to GARM for comment.
