X files antitrust lawsuit accusing advertisers of ‘illegal boycott’
- Elon Musk bought Twitter, now X, in 2022
- He and CEO Linda Yaccarino say advertisers planned 'illegal boycott'
- Allegations detailed in federal antitrust lawsuit
FILE – Elon Musk appears at an event, Nov. 2, 2023, in London. Musk posted to social media company X on Tuesday, July 16, 2024, that he plans on moving SpaceX from Hawthorne, Calif., to Starbase, Texas. X will move to Austin from San Francisco. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool, File)
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(NewsNation) — Elon Musk’s X filed an antitrust lawsuit Tuesday against a global advertising group and several major companies, alleging they “organized a systematic illegal boycott against” the site.
X Corp. CEO Linda Yaccarino announced the civil action in a recorded video message posted to her profile Tuesday morning. The lawsuit was filed in Texas federal court against the World Federation of Advertisers, Unilever and Danish renewable energy company Orsted, in addition to Mars and CVS Health, Reuters reported.
“They conspired to boycott X, which threatens our ability to thrive in the future,” Yaccarino said. “That puts your global town square, the one place that you can express yourself freely and openly, at long-term risk.”
In a statement, X said it wasn’t a decision the company took lightly, but a “direct consequence of their actions.”
“We tried peace for 2 years, now it is war,” Musk posted on X.
Twitter struggled financially when Musk purchased it for $44 billion in a deal that closed Oct. 27, 2022. He took the company private and its books are no longer publicly available. However, Musk said in July the company had lost about half of its advertising revenue and continues to face a large debt load.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
