Musk’s X sues advertising group over boycott that allegedly cost it billions

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Elon Musk’s social-media company X filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against an advertising industry coalition, saying companies in the group illegally boycotted the platform.

X alleged companies including CVS Health, Mars, and Unilever conspired to withhold billions in advertising dollars to force the platform formerly known as Twitter to maintain certain safety standards, according to the complaint filed Tuesday in Texas’ northern district. The boycott began in November 2022 after Musk acquired Twitter and continues today, the lawsuit said.

X said the coalition violated antitrust laws by having its members agree to a boycott, which X called a “coercive exercise of market power." The companies cited in the X lawsuit were part of the World Federation of Advertisers group, which has dozens of members. The group has an initiative called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media pushing for harmful content to be removed from social media so they aren’t placed next to ads from their members.

The Global Alliance for Responsible Media noted “the massive economic harm imposed on Twitter by the boycott," the lawsuit said. “The boycott and its effects continue to this day, despite X applying brand safety standards comparable to those of its competitors." The World Federation of Advertisers and the other defendants didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Advertisers have fled X since Musk bought the platform in 2022, partially in response to Musk’s inflammatory posts. Last year, several large advertisers ditched the platform after the billionaire described an antisemitic post as “the actual truth." At a conference, he said advertisers pulling their ads from X can “go f— yourself." In multiple X