Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, has sued a global advertising alliance and several major companies, including Unilever, Mars, and CVS Health. The lawsuit accuses them of unlawfully conspiring to boycott the social network and intentionally causing revenue losses.
In an open letter to advertisers, X Corp CEO Linda Yaccarino cited a U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee report, which found evidence of an illegal boycott against many companies, including X. The report entitled “GARM’s (Global Alliance for Responsible Media) Harm” mentions “Evidence obtained by the Committee showing that GARM and its members directly organized boycotts and used other indirect tactics to target disfavoured platforms, content creators, and news organizations in an effort to demonetize and, in effect, limit certain choices for consumers.”
“To put it simply, people are hurt when the marketplace of ideas is undermined, and some viewpoints are not funded over others as part of an illegal boycott,” said Yaccarino, who joined X as CEO in June 2023.
“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. This is not a decision we took lightly, but it is a direct consequence of their actions. The illegal behaviour of these organizations and their executives cost X billions of dollars.”
According to Yaccarino, X has met and surpassed the requests made by advertisers and groups such as GARM for new tools to improve advertiser controls and effectiveness.
“I have worked in good faith with marketers across the globe to showcase our innovations and allay any concerns with brands whom I’ve partnered with for decades. The unfortunate reality is that despite all our efforts, hundreds of meetings, and research to the contrary, many companies chose to dismiss the facts. To those who broke the law, we say enough is enough. We are compelled to seek justice for the harm that has been done by these and potentially additional defendants, depending on what the legal process reveals,” added the executive, who previously worked for Turner Entertainment and NBCUniversal.
X filed the lawsuit in federal court in Texas on August 6th against the World Federation of Advertisers and the companies individually. On Tuesday, Elon Musk shared Yaccarino’s open letter, adding a personal note: “We tried peace for 2 years, now it is war.”
Elon Musk’s efforts, however, may not result in any payment from Unilever, a British multinational fast-moving consumer goods company founded in 1929. Musk himself didn’t seem fazed last year while addressing advertisers. “If somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is,” Musk told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin.
