Elon Musk announces he will sue several groups accused of boycotting X

“We tried to resolve this peacefully for two years, now it’s war”tweeted the boss of X. Elon Musk announced that he had filed a complaint on Tuesday, August 9, against an advertising organization and several large groups, which he accuses of having “illegally” boycotted its X platform (formerly Twitter), resulting in several billion dollars of losses.

The companies involved are accused of anti-competitive practices in a complaint filed against the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) in a federal court in Texas. The groups targeted include Mars and the Anglo-Dutch Unilever as well as the large American pharmacy chain CVS Health. In court documents seen by AFP, WFA is accused of having, through its initiative called GARM (Global Alliance for Responsible Media, in French), worked behind the scenes with these groups and others, in order to “collectively deprive billions of dollars in advertising spending” the social network X.

In a video posted on the social network on Tuesday, its CEO Linda Yaccarino said that X had been the victim of a “illegal systematic boycott”. “They agreed to boycott X (…). No small group of people should have the opportunity to monopolize what can be monetized.”she said.

X is hoping for a trial and to obtain the payment of damages, for an amount that has not been specified. According to the New York TimesLThe social network is suffering financially. In the second quarter, the group only made $114 million in revenue, down 25% compared to the first and even 53% compared to the same period last year.