Musk declares "war"

X takes renegade advertisers to court

For two years they had tried to do it peacefully, now there is "war", Musk wrote on X about the lawsuit.

(Bild: APA/AFP, twitter.com, Krone KREATIV)

Elon Musk's online platform X is taking legal action against major advertisers who are no longer placing ads on the Twitter successor. These include consumer goods giant Unilever and food company Mars.

In the lawsuit, X speaks of a coordinated boycott and a violation of competition law. Dozens of members of an international organization of advertisers had colluded to deprive X of "billions of dollars". The World Federation of Advertisers, which is also being sued, did not initially respond to the allegations.

Hate speech and misinformation
The lawsuit escalates a conflict that began with Musk's takeover of Twitter in October 2022. The tech billionaire describes himself as an advocate of unrestricted freedom of speech. Musk, who himself supports political positions of the American right, relaxed the implementation of Twitter rules against the spread of hate speech and misinformation.

Advertising customers migrated
One consequence of Musk's takeover was an exodus of large and small advertising customers. He said several times that advertising revenue had roughly halved.

The companies are worried about their reputation: hate speech researchers demonstrated how ads from well-known brands can appear alongside anti-Semitic posts, for example. X declared the examples to be manipulated and not commonplace.

Now there is a "war"
With their initiative, advertisers want to prevent their ads from appearing next to problematic content. They therefore only want to advertise on online platforms that adhere to guidelines. X counters that the association wanted to force the service to implement the guidelines with a boycott.

They had tried for two years in a peaceful manner, now there is "war", Musk wrote on X about the lawsuit. He had already attacked renegade advertisers with obscene words months ago - and at the time, he particularly targeted the entertainment company Disney.