Elon Musk posted on X that the company tried to be patient for two years and now it is gearing up to begin the battle (Image: X @Elon Musk)
Major food giants Unilever and Mars have been sued by Elon Musk’s X platform alleging that they made deliberate and unlawful efforts to boycott the social media platform. The lawsuit includes a group of advertisers stating that the company is now deprived of billions of dollars due to the massive boycott by the advertisers. The company filed a lawsuit against the World Federation of Advertisers and companies including Unilever, Mars, CVS Health and Orsted in a Texas, federal court.
Elon Musk posted on X that the company tried to be patient for two years and now it gears up to begin the battle against these companies.
We tried peace for 2 years, now it is war https://t.co/elgT62uDtF
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 6, 2024
Illegal coordination was found behind the boycott as the US House Judiciary Committee’s probe found that the systematic illegal boycott had been organised against the X platform by the advertisers listed in the lawsuit, stated Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X.
I strongly encourage any company that has been systematically boycotted by advertisers to file a lawsuit.
There may also be criminal liability via the RICO Act.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 6, 2024
In 2023, various advertisers started quitting the X platform as their ads have been noticed placing near to pro-nazi content and with other hate speech subjects. When billionaire Elon Musk endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory, more advertisers started pulling back their ads raising concerns over dissenting content.
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Earlier in 2022, on account of Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of “Twitter” paved the way for the halt in advertisements on the platform as the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) played a pivotal role in coordinating a temporary pause in advertising various companies’ content.
However, Mars, Unilever and other companies did not comment on this matter or respond to Elon Musk’s post. But in a prepared testimony Herrish Patel, president of Unilever USA stated that no media platform has the right to the company’s advertising dollars.
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