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submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

The company claimed that members of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media coordinated to dissuade brands from advertising on X.

filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, a coalition of major advertisers, claiming that it had violated antitrust laws by coordinating with brands to dissuade them from spending money on the social media platform.

The suit, filed in federal court in Texas, claims that the coalition, known as GARM, “conspired” with leading brands, including CVS, Unilever, Mars and the Danish energy company Orsted, to “collectively withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue” that were owed to X, then known as Twitter, in the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media company in 2022.

With the lawsuit, X effectively declared war on advertisers, which provide the bulk of the social media company’s revenue. Since Mr. Musk acquired the company and promised to usher in a new era of unfettered free speech, many advertisers have limited their spending on X, concerned by reports of rising hate speech and misinformation there. By pursuing legal action against GARM, Mr. Musk continued to break with the leaders of other social media companies, who have forged close relationships with advertisers and been responsive to their concerns about offensive online content.

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[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 188 points 3 months ago

He told them to fuck off, and is now but hurt that they took his advice.

Musk is literally that kid whose mom made you include him even though nobody liked him.

[-] Kalkaline@leminal.space 74 points 3 months ago

Advertisers also don't want their products displayed next to pro-Nazi content either. Can't forget that part.

[-] Nougat@fedia.io 19 points 3 months ago

Unfortunately, Elon's twitter account is still active.

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[-] DandomRude@lemmy.world 20 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Yes, since Musk fired his PR team in 2020, things have gone steadily downhill for him. That was probably one of his worst decisions, considering how successful his PR team was in falsly portraying him as a tech genius and progressive visionary. Well, now it is clear to everyone that this was never even remotely true.

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

Considering how monumentally douchey musk is… that team was probably among the best in the world. Hope whoever picked them up on the bounce is good to them. Or just good. We don’t need another musk.

[-] DandomRude@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago
[-] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

I wonder if he fired them because they weren't able to recover his image after that pedophile tweet on 2018. That's when I realized that giving him the benefit of the doubt might be a mistake. A public temper tantrum like that didn't just show that he wasn't any better than other billionaires, it showed he was likely worse because most of them don't let tirades like that show from behind closed doors, if they need them at all.

[-] DandomRude@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

I think he fired his PR team because the image they had built up for him had gone to his head. Then there was the financial success that came with it. He probably believed that he really is a genius who is not dependent on anyone but himself - he is obviously still convinced of this abstruse idea. Yet it has always been the case that Musk was the biggest problem for his companies. It really is a PR masterstroke to hide the fact that he is actually rather incompetent for so long. This man lives exclusively from the achievements of others. This is proven by the fact that he reached a settlement with the actual founders of Tesla to allow him to call himself a Tesla co-founder - which he is not. In my eyes, Musk is the personification of the most fundamental problem that our society has: He merely takes credit for the hard work and remarkable expertise of his employees in order to present all of this to the public as the achievement of a supposedly exceptional person. This is how people like Musk and Trump, for example, see themselves. However, their miserable decisions show that they are nothing of the sort. Hubris is the term psychology uses for such inaccurate overestimation of oneself.

[-] Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago

What an absolutely fantastic example of "fuck around and find out." Tell people to go fuck themselves, so they don't want anything to do with you, and then you cry about it. It's poetry.

[-] GTKashi@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago

His whole butt, even. With both Ts.

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

now it just sounds like a motorbutt

[-] SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world 103 points 3 months ago

Capitalists when the free market doesn’t do what they want.

[-] Eldritch@lemmy.world 54 points 3 months ago

Vote with your dollar! No! Not like that!

[-] puppy@lemmy.world 68 points 3 months ago

Musk is being a little bitch about the free market?

[-] nokturne213@sopuli.xyz 35 points 3 months ago

He is really weird.

[-] OmnislashIsACloudApp@lemmy.world 45 points 3 months ago

can't wait for the clip we're the lawyer says "Your Honor, exhibit A is a video clip of Mr Musk telling advertisers to, and I quote: 'fuck off'"

[-] bender223@lemmy.today 43 points 3 months ago

That's dumb AF. Boycotts are legal. 🤦‍♂️

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 23 points 3 months ago

And corporations are not entitled to advertising revenue.

[-] wintermute@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 3 months ago

That was my first thought. Since when boycotting (aka not choosing) something is illegal?

[-] iamthetuner@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago
[-] meec3@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

See if Musk was ~actually~ a smart man, he'd have moved twitter's headquarters TO Israel before starting this lawsuit, seeing as that anti-boycott act is present in like 40 states.

[-] IamSparticles@lemmy.zip 7 points 3 months ago

I suppose if he could show that a bunch of advertisers agreed to pull their ads together, he might have a case for an illegal anti-competition agreement. But I don't think that's the case. They all decided, independently, that they didn't want to be a part of his shit show.

[-] echo@lemmings.world 42 points 3 months ago

Guess what, Melon Husk... they aren't required to associate with you and can quite publicly boycott you, if they like.

[-] Phegan@lemmy.world 39 points 3 months ago

They like the free market until it works against them. Capitalists are glories conmen.

[-] Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world 31 points 3 months ago

The fact that this bizarre and insane "lawsuit" is being brought in Texas should be concerning. If he gets a conservative enough judge, neither the law nor the facts will matter at all.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 24 points 3 months ago

Maybe, but regardless of the outcome of this case, how many advertisers are going to want to advertise on Twitter if they find out he'll sue them for not advertising on Twitter anymore?

[-] Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

Excellent point. I hope this scares the few remaining advertisers away for good.

[-] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

Makes me wonder how much farther this shit can go before the legal system fractures when enough people say they don't give a fuck what any Texas judges have to say and if they have to pull business entirely out of Texas, so be it.

[-] Tacos_y_margaritas@lemmynsfw.com 3 points 3 months ago

Billionaires suing billionaires in a corrupt legal system. What could go wrong?

[-] OneWomanCreamTeam@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 months ago

Yeah, but he's using a coalition of big companies. Their pockets are probably just as deep as his if not more.

[-] protist@mander.xyz 31 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

The only point of this is to elevate the Global Alliance for Responsible Media in the right-wing propaganda machine to try to get companies to distance themselves from it. Don't take bullshit suits like this at face value

Edit: Woke up this morning to multiple Republicans in Congress calling for "investigations" into GARM

[-] nifty@lemmy.world 29 points 3 months ago

Why the fuck do people still use twitter?

[-] drmoose@lemmy.world 28 points 3 months ago

Has Musk ever proceeded with one of his lawsuits till the end? Seems like he just sues people, gets the headlines and then drops out lol

[-] Tyfud@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

That's exactly what this is

[-] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 25 points 3 months ago

"I can do whatever the shit I want and you still have to advertise with me OK" sounds like how an extremely spoiled and self centred kid would behave with his/her parents.

[-] SomeGuy69@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago

Watch companies now blacklisting Musk on every product.

[-] n3m37h@sh.itjust.works 14 points 3 months ago

Why doesn't anyone like me? I know, I'll sue them I to liking me and then I will have all of the monies - Elon

[-] tilefan@lemm.ee 14 points 3 months ago

there are like 15 billionaires out there all conspiring together not to give me over a million dollars. I can sue them for trust activity right?

[-] DogPeePoo@lemm.ee 13 points 3 months ago

What a dumb dumb.

Act like a racist, win racist prizes.

[-] KijinSeija@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago

“We want a free market!”

“Wait, not like that”

[-] Agent641@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

"Free to me, not free to them!"

[-] 2ugly2live@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago

I'm super confused. How can you sue people for not using your service??? If that was true, they wouldn't have had to shoot MLK, they would have just sued him into the ground.

[-] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 months ago

I'm going to sue X for not advertising on my platform. It's just $1000 a week for a sign on my fridge, my entire family will see it daily!

[-] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 12 points 3 months ago

I gotta think he is represented by Bob Loblaw

[-] lewdian69@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

Bob Loblaw wouldn't take this case. I'm not even sure Barry would touch it.
No touching!

[-] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 months ago

By pursuing legal action against GARM, Mr. Musk continued to break with the leaders of other social media companies, who have forged close relationships with advertisers and been responsive to their concerns about offensive online content.

This is the most journalist way of saying "This guy is a fucking idiot."

[-] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 months ago

Can't they just bring in a video of him telling advertisers to "go fuck yourself" and get this thrown out? Or would that just add Musk as a co-defendant?

[-] andallthat@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

laugh all you want, but YOU are next, former Twitter users who refused to pay for their blue badge and had the gall to move to Mastodon or others!

This shit sounds like flavor text on an item in a post-dystopian futuristic video have (the first Horizon game's news clips come to mind)

[-] projectsquared@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

Dude looks like a taller Syndrome from the first Incredible movie.

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this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2024
264 points (94.9% liked)

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