X’s Elon Musk in May 2024. Credit: Apu Gomes/Getty Images

Elon Musk’s social media platform X has sued a clutch of major companies, including Unilever and Mars, claiming they unlawfully conspired to boycott the site.

X filed the lawsuit in a federal court in Texas yesterday (6 August) against the FMCG giants, as well as the World Federation of Advertisers, Danish renewable energy company Orsted and CVS Health.

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The suit said advertisers, acting through a World Federation of Advertisers initiative called Global Alliance for Responsible Media, conspired “to collectively withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue” from X, formerly known as Twitter.

It added that the companies acted against their own economic self-interests in a conspiracy against the platform that violated US antitrust law.

X CEO Linda Yaccarino said in a statement: “These organisations targeted our company and you, our users. The evidence and facts are on our side. They conspired to boycott X which threatens our ability to thrive in the future. That puts your global town square, the one place that you can express yourself freely and openly, at long- term risk.

“People are hurt when the marketplace of ideas is constricted. No small group of people should be able to monopolise what gets monetised. This group is no match for the power of our users.”

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Musk posted on X: “We tried being nice for 2 years and got nothing but empty words. Now, it is war.”

Unilever and Mars could not immediately be reached for comment.

The advertising group launched the responsible media initiative in 2019 to “help the industry address the challenge of illegal or harmful content on digital media platforms and its monetisation via advertising”.

X said in the lawsuit that the boycott and its effects “continue to this day, despite X applying brand safety standards comparable to those of its competitors and which meet or exceed those specified by GARM (Global Alliance for Responsible Media)”.