Elon Musk, the owner of X (formerly Twitter), has filed a lawsuit against a group of advertisers and major companies which have refused to advertise on the X social media platform. He accused them of unlawfully agreeing to boycott placing ads on the site.
The lawsuit was filed in a Texas court recently against food giants Unilever and Mars, private healthcare company, CVS Health, renewable energy firm, Orsted, and the trade association World Federation of Advertisers (WFA). X alleges that this boycott has cost it “billions of dollars” in revenue.
Taking to his official X account page, Musk wrote, “I strongly encourage any company who has been systematically boycotted by advertisers to file a lawsuit. There may also be criminal liability via the RICO Act.”
This comes as Musk faces increasing criticism for his management of the site, which has recently been blamed for failing to address misinformation spread during the riots in England.
Commenting on the reason for the lawsuit, Chief Executive Officer at X, Linda Yaccarino said, “People are hurt when the marketplace of ideas is constricted. No small group of people should monopolise what gets monetised.”
The lawsuit alleges that the advertisers, through a World Federation of Advertisers initiative called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), colluded in a manner that violated US antitrust laws.