X Corp. Elon Musk has sued media watchdog group Media Matters for luring away advertisers from the social network formerly known as Twitter by describing it as riddled with anti-Semitic content.
In a complaint filed in Texas federal court, X accuses the NGO of “misleading the algorithm into believing that Media Matters wanted to see both hateful content and content from major advertisers.”
Apple, Comcast, NBCUniversal and IBM are among the major brands that halted their advertising on X last week, after Media Matters reported finding ads displayed with pro-Nazi content.
“This is a futile trial intended to silence critics of X,” said Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters, in response to a request for comment from AFP.
“Media Matters stands by its information and hopes to win its case in court,” he added.
The White House also accused Elon Musk on Friday of having made a “abject promotion of anti-Semitic and racist hatred” in one of his publications on X.
The billionaire responded Wednesday to the owner of an account, who wrote that Jewish people encouraged “hatred against white people,” with this message: “You told the exact truth.”
For Washington, the message merely repeats a conspiracy theory popular among white nationalists, according to which Jews have a secret plan to promote illegal immigration to Western countries to harm the white majority.
The complaint filed Monday makes no mention of Musk endorsing this conspiracy theory, instead blaming Media Matters for recent advertising losses.
“Media Matters knowingly and maliciously fabricated images depicting advertising messages on the X Corp social network. alongside neo-Nazi and white nationalist content, and then presented these fabricated images as if they were the typical X user experience,” according to the complaint.
X asked the court to sanction Media Matters by asking it to pay damages of an unspecified amount and to remove its information.
Since taking over the reins of Twitter a year ago, Elon Musk has reduced content moderation, reinstated previously suspended extremist accounts, and allowed users to pay for account verification, helping them to take advantage of viral, but often inaccurate, posts.