TOPLINE
X Corporation will file a “thermonuclear” lawsuit against a media watchdog that claimed advertisements for several companies—including Apple and Disney, among others—appeared by antisemitic posts on X, Elon Musk said Saturday, following decisions from several major companies to pause ads on Musk’s social media platform.
KEY FACTS
Musk said a lawsuit will be filed Monday the “split second court opens” against Media Matters for America, a left-wing watchdog, after Musk suggested Media Matters “posted a story that completely misrepresented the real experience on X.”
Media Matters used an alternate account to curate posts and advertising that appeared on the account’s timeline, Musk claims, in an effort to “manipulate the public and advertisers.”
Once the account’s feed was “curated,” Media Matters “repeatedly refreshed” the account’s timeline to find “a rare instance of ads serving next to the content they chose to follow,” Musk alleges.
Media Matters reported earlier this week that ads for major firms—including Apple, Bravo, IBM, Oracle and Xfinity—were appearing next to content that supported Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.
IBM said Thursday it was pulling ads, while companies like Apple, Disney and Lionsgate followed suit Friday.
Media Matters did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Forbes.
KEY BACKGROUND
X, formerly known as Twitter, has also reinstated several accounts for far-right extremists “as part of its creator ad revenue sharing program,” the watchdog claims. The report followed comments from Musk, who endorsed another user’s claims that Jewish communities objecting to antisemitism show “hatred against whites,” which Musk said was the “actual truth.” The user also appeared to endorse a conspiracy theory that was shared by Robert Bowers, who killed 11 people at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018, the deadliest attack on Jewish people in U.S. history. Musk was widely condemned for his comments, including in a statement from the White House that said Musk’s post was an “abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate.”
TANGENT
Musk earlier this week also criticized the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish civil rights group that Musk claims “unjustly attacks the majority of the West, despite the majority of the West supporting the Jewish people and Israel.” Musk accused the group of pushing “de facto anti-white racism.” Musk previously blamed the ADL for X’s 60% decline in ad revenue, claiming the organization had been urging advertisers to pull out of the platform.