Tipsheet

X Is Dropping a 'Thermonuclear Lawsuit' Against Media Matters

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  November 20, 2023 11:30 AM

Elon Musk vowed that his social media company, X, will post a “thermonuclear lawsuit” the second court opens on Monday against Media Matters for America.

The entrepreneur said a hit piece against X resulted in multiple corporations, including IBM, Apple, Disney, and Lionsgate Entertainment, among others, pulling their advertising from the platform. 

Last week, a Media Matters’ report alleged ads from top corporations were running “alongside white nationalist and pro-Nazi content”—a claim fiercely disputed by X. 

A statement from the social media company argued the left-wing watchdog group “completely misrepresented the real user experience on X, in another attempt to undermine freedom of speech and mislead advertisers.”

The company said it prioritizes free speech even above profit and believes all users should have the right to determine for themselves what content to consume. The statement then offered a rebuttal to the story: 

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Here are the facts on Media Matters’ research:

  • To manipulate the public and advertisers, Media Matters created an alternate account and curated the posts and advertising appearing on the account’s timeline to misinform advertisers about the placement of their posts. These contrived experiences could be applied to any platform. 
  • Once they curated their feed, they repeatedly refreshed their timelines to find a rare instance of ads serving next to the content they chose to follow. Our logs indicate that they forced a scenario resulting in 13 times the number of ads served compared to the median ads served to an X user. 
  • Of the 5.5 billion ad impressions on X that day, less than 50 total ad impressions were served against all of the organic content featured in the Media Matters article.
  • For one brand showcased in the article, one of its ads ran adjacent to a post 2 times and that ad was seen in that setting by only two users, one of which was the author of the Media Matters article.
  • For another brand showcased in the article, two of its ads served adjacent to 2 posts, 3 times, and that ad was only seen in that setting by one user, the author of the Media Matters article.
  • Media Matters’ article also highlights nine posts they believe should not be allowed on X. Upon evaluation, only one of the nine organic posts featured in the article violated our content policies, and we’ve taken action on it under our Freedom of Speech, Not Reach enforcement approach. (X blog)

Sharing Musk's tweet, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said protecting freedom of speech is more important now than ever.