Many major US firms have decided to stop running advertisements on Elon Musk’s social networking platform X after the site was accused of sharing antisemitic content. Now Musk has vowed to sue Media Matters, a watchdog group, and others.
The racist and antisemitic material that has spread throughout the website since X bought it in 2022 nd it has kept Musk and X under close scrutiny.
Media Matters for America, a liberal watchdog group, said earlier this week that it had discovered advertisements from Apple, IBM and other companies positioned next to content that supported Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.
Musk on Wednesday defended an antisemitic post on X that purportedly said Jews were inciting hatred against white people. The statement drew harsh criticism, including from the White House.
Without mentioning any other parties, Musk stated in a statement on X, “The split second court opens on Monday, X Corp. will be filing a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and all those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company.”
IBM, Disney, Warner Bros, Discovery and Comcast, Lions Gate Entertainment and Paramount Global are just a few of the businesses that have banned advertisements for X in the past two days. According to Axios, Apple, the most valuable firm in the world, would follow the suit.
Musk tweeted a statement saying, “This week, in another attempt to undermine freedom of speech and mislead advertisers, Media Matters for America posted a story that completely misrepresented the real experience on X.”
He said that Media Matters had set up a spoof account with the intention of “misinforming advertisers” about their content.
Musk, according to Media Matters on Saturday, is a “bully” who threatens “meritless lawsuits.”
“Musk acknowledged that the problematic advertisements were shown alongside the pro-Nazi content that we detected,” a statement from Media Matters President Angelo Carusone said.
In the past, Musk has threatened to sue other parties, most notably the Anti-Defamation League, a group that combats antisemitism, alleging that it is to blame for X’s decline in ad income. But he hasn’t sued the ADL yet.
