X sues Media Matters after global brands stop advertising on the platform
Elon Musk’s social network X has filed a lawsuit against the Media Matters organization, accusing it of defamation. This happened after the group published a report that big brand ads appeared next to pro-Nazi content on the platform, writes Reuters.
Media Matters published this report on Thursday, November 16. As a result, many large companies have announced that they will stop corporate advertising on X. For example, such a decision was announced by IBM – the company emphasized that it has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination.
In response to this state of affairs, X filed a lawsuit against Media Matters. In the lawsuit, the platform claims that the organization “manipulated” the social network. It allegedly used accounts that exclusively followed the pages of large brands or users and “resorted to endlessly scrolling and refreshing” the feed until it found ads next to extremist posts.
According to the platform, the Media Matters report distorted the typical experience of working with the social network “with the intention of harming X and its business.” In an emailed statement, Media Matters President Angelo Carusone called the lawsuit “frivolous” and said it “aims to silence X’s critics.”
By the way, brand executives and marketing leaders have approached X CEO Linda Yaccarino to convince her to resign. In this way, the advertising community is trying to save its reputation.