Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, has launched a legal battle against the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and several major corporations, accusing them of causing substantial financial damage through an alleged boycott. The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Texas, names the WFA, Unilever, Mars, CVS Health, and Danish energy company Orsted as defendants.
Elon Musk, who acquired X, formerly known as Twitter, in late 2022, announced the lawsuit on the platform with a bold declaration: “We tried peace for 2 years, now it is war.” The suit claims that the WFA and its Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) initiative have conspired with the named companies to withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue from X. This purportedly coordinated boycott follows Elon Musk’s controversial takeover and concerns about changes in content moderation policies.
The complaint alleges that these actions have severely impacted X’s financial stability, with the platform experiencing a dramatic drop in ad revenue. According to internal company documents cited by The New York Times, X’s U.S. revenue plummeted by 25 percent from the first to the second quarter of this year and by 53 percent compared to the same period last year.
X’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, condemned the alleged boycott as a “systematic illegal boycott” in a video posted on the platform. Yaccarino criticized the actions as a threat to the platform’s future viability and argued that no small group should control monetization opportunities.
In addition to this lawsuit, Elon Musk has also filed a separate legal action in California against OpenAI, accusing its co-founders, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, of fraud and conspiracy. Elon Musk, a former investor in OpenAI, claims the organization betrayed its founding mission.
The legal disputes underscore the contentious environment surrounding Elon Musk’s ventures and the ongoing debates over content moderation and corporate responsibility in the digital age.
