Musk is suing advertisers for money they didn't spend on X, accusing them of illegal boycott

On Tuesday, CEO of X (formerly Twitter) Linda Yaccarino released an open letter to advertisers alongside a video message to X users, announcing legal action against Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), and GARM members CVS Health, Mars, Orsted, and Unilever.

X claims the big advertisers followed GARM’s recommendation and illegally boycotted the social media platform, costing the company billions in ad revenue. X now seeks this lost revenue via an antitrust lawsuit.

The advertisers started to worry about their presence on X when Elon Musk took over Twitter in 2022. Among the first big decisions was cutting the trust and safety team that handled global content moderation, including hate speech and harassment.

However, Linda Yaccarino thinks the company did more than enough to assure the advertisers that its brand safety standards are at the required level:

“We have met and surpassed the requests made by advertisers and groups such as GARM for new tools, both to improve advertiser controls and the effectiveness of our products to drive increased value for our customers.

“We have proven our platform provides advertisers a way to showcase their brands and reach their target audiences safely, efficiently, and effectively. That’s why I’ve 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.”

The company’s action is based on the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee’s report released in July, stating:

“Evidence obtained by the Committee shows that GARM and its members directly organized boycotts and used other indirect tactics to target disfavored platforms, content creators, and news organizations in an effort to demonetize and, in effect, limit certain choices for consumers."

In a video message to X users, Linda Yaccarino said she was shocked by the evidence. She made several remarks implying that advertisers targeted not only the company but also users themselves by their actions.

Ironically, it was X’s owner, Elon Musk, who infamously said to the advertisers concerned about the new direction of the company to “go F yourself.” The clip of his public remarks is now trending again.

The high-profile dispute is just another one in a series of controversies related to the social media platform. Just recently, it came to light that X feeds Grok with user-generated data to train its AI chatbot. The company automatically opted the users in without consent; however, there is an easy way how to opt-out.