Elon Musk has made good on his threat to launch a significant lawsuit against the left-leaning advocacy group Media Matters. The X owner claims that his social media platform was targeted and its reputation unfairly tarnished. In preparation for filing, Musk noted that this would be a “thermonuclear lawsuit,” suggesting its impact would be seismic.
At the heart of the suit is that Media Matters sought to dissuade advertisers from spending their cash on the platform by publishing an article that showed big-name brand ads being placed next to unsavory content – specifically “white nationalist” hashtags. Musk contends that the group manipulated the algorithm to produce such a result and that any genuine user would not have the same experience.
According to the lawsuit, Media Matters took several specific steps to produce content that could be seen as damaging by potential advertisers. The suit claims that the media company purposely followed a small subset of accounts that were “known to produce extreme, fringe content, and accounts owned by X’s big-name advertisers” to produce “side-by-side content.” Further, it claims the group then engaged in continuous “scrolling and refreshing” to generate “between 13 and 15” times more ads per hour than a regular user. And finally, “repeating this inauthentic activity until it finally received pages containing the result it wanted: controversial content next to X’s largest advertisers’ paid posts.”
Newly-appointed X CEO Linda Yaccarino wrote:
“If you know me, you know I’m committed to truth and fairness. Here’s the truth. Not a single authentic user on X saw IBM’s, Comcast’s, or Oracle’s ads next to the content in Media Matters’ article. Only 2 users saw Apple’s ad next to the content, at least one of which was Media Matters. Data wins over manipulation or allegations. Don’t be manipulated. Stand with X.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton indicated he was opening an investigation to determine if Media Matters engaged in “potential fraudulent activity” by manipulating data on the platform. “We are examining the issue closely to ensure that the public has not been deceived by the schemes of radical left-wing organizations who would like nothing more than to limit freedom by reducing participation in the public square,” said Paxton.
Liberty Nation believes you should have all the facts without the spin. As such, we republish the lawsuit here in full:
X lawsuit by Liberty Nation on Scribd
