The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/6/24214536/x-elon-musk-antitrust-lawsuit-advertisers-boycott
Business

There is an antitrust lawsuit against advertisers

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Check My Ads: A Case Study of a Right-Wing Platform that Cannot Cancellate Culture: The Case of Elon Musk

X is asking the court to declare the advertisers’ actions illegal and award the company damages that will be determined at trial. This lawsuit is the latest in a string of largely unsuccessful legal actions taken by Musk. He dropped his lawsuit against Openai and its partners in June because he claimed they bribed Musk into cofounding the nonprofit.

A separate post from Elon Musk said he “strongly encourage[s] any company who has been systematically boycotted by advertisers to file a lawsuit,” as there could also be “criminal liability” under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act — a law that aims to crack down on organized crimes.

The ability to choose where to advertise is protected under the First Amendment as pointed out by Techdirt, so it is not certain if X will fare well in court. Check My Ads states that advertisers can’t send money to a platform that promotes hate and conspiracy theories.

The right-wing video site Rumble, founded more than 10 years ago as an alternative to YouTube and positioned as a platform “immune to cancel culture,” announced on Tuesday that it had filed a similar lawsuit. The company posted that Garm was a conspiracy to cause an advertiser boycott of others.

The US House Judiciary Committee has been looking into the issue of censorship of right-wing views on social media. In July the committee found in a preliminary report that it was likely illegal for GARM to organize its trade association and coordinate actions that rob consumers of choices. The congressional panel reviewed internal GARM emails that led to X’s lawsuit.

“In a competitive market, each social media platform would set the brand safety standards that are optimal for that platform and for its users, and advertisers would unilaterally select the platforms on which they advertise,” the complaint states. Collective Action among competing advertisers is a way to dictate brand safety standards to be applied by social media platforms, which are used by a group of advertisers with market power.

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