news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

Source: Global Times

[Global Times Comprehensive Report] According to a report by the British "Guardian" on the 7th, on August 6 local time, Musk's social media platform X filed a federal antitrust lawsuit in the U.S. Federal Court in Texas, accusing several companies of illegally conspiring to boycott the X platform, causing it to lose "billions of dollars" in advertising revenue.

According to reports, the lawsuit was caused by Musk's acquisition of the X platform (then called Twitter) in 2022. Some companies were worried that X would not continue to strictly delete harmful online information in accordance with standards, and thus significantly reduced their advertising investment in the platform. A source said that X expects advertising revenue in 2024 to continue to decline, even lower than 2023 (US$2.5 billion), to only US$2 billion, which is much lower than the US$4.5 billion in 2021.

Musk, data map

After filing the lawsuit, Musk wrote on X: "I have tried to get along with several companies that advertised on X for two years, and got nothing but empty words. Now, it's war." Musk also called on other social platforms or companies in similar situations to join in. According to the Financial Times, X listed the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), Unilever, Orsted, and Mars as defendants in the lawsuit filed on the 6th.

The lawsuit documents show that the above-mentioned companies unfairly withheld advertising spending for X based on the safety standards set by the WFA's Global Alliance for Responsible Media (Garm), which aims to "help the industry address the challenges of illegal or harmful content on digital media platforms and achieve profitability through advertising." Although X has applied brand safety standards comparable to those of its competitors. The documents mentioned that the actions of these companies are contrary to their own economic interests, constitute a conspiracy against X, and violate US antitrust and competition laws. According to the BBC, X is seeking compensation and asking the court to order any conspiracy to cut advertising funds. The above-mentioned companies and WFA did not immediately respond to the request of the X platform.

A professor at the State University of New York told Reuters that the threshold for winning lawsuits such as "illegal boycotts" is very high and is often unlikely to succeed, "because the X platform must prove that each defendant company has joined a real boycott agreement. But in cases where the agreement may be implicit, it is not easy to prove this requirement. In addition, even if the case is successful, X cannot force them to place advertisements on the platform." (Zhou Yang)