Alexander Lewis 
Nov 21, 2023
X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has sued Media Matters for accusing it of showing ads next to antisemitic content on the platform.
The watchdog organisation, Media Matters, last week published an analysis wherein it said that ads are appearing on X right next to posts supporting Nazism.
Elon Musk, a day before the Media Matters research was published, reportedly endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory, leading to major brands like IBM, Apple, and Warner Bros pulling their ads from the platform, with Discovery and Sony pausing their spending on the platform, Reuters reported.
The firm last week reported that X “has been placing ads for major brands” like Apple and IBM “next to content that touts Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party.”
However, the Tesla boss, Elon Musk, has rejected the remarks, saying that Media Matters for America is misinterpreting the content to devalue the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Following his rebuttal, he sued the watchdog firm by lodging a petition in Texas, keeping up with his promise he made on Friday where he vowed to file a “thermonuclear lawsuit” against Media Matters and its backers.
Responding to Musk’s promise, Angelo Carusone, President of Media Matters, commented that they would win any legal action.
"Far from the free speech advocate he claims to be, Musk is a bully who threatens meritless lawsuits in an attempt to silence reporting that he even confirmed is accurate," said Mr Carusone in a statement.
Media Matters describes itself as a non-profit "Progressive research and information centre dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analysing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the US media." It was founded in 2004.
X in the lawsuit states, "Media Matters knowingly and maliciously manufactured side-by-side images depicting advertisers' posts on X Corp's social media platform beside Neo-Nazi and white-nationalist fringe content and then portrayed these manufactured images as if they were what typical X users experience on the platform.”
It added that Media Matters designed both these images and its resulting media strategy to discourage advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp.
