Musk "Now It's War"...X Faces Lawsuit Over Advertisers' Illegal Boycott Campaign

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, who owns the social networking service X (formerly Twitter), has filed a lawsuit against the World Federation of Advertisers and others. The claim is that their large-scale boycott caused billions of dollars in damages.

According to the Associated Press on the 6th (local time), X filed a lawsuit in the Texas federal court against the World Federation of Advertisers and member companies including Unilever, Mars, CVS Health, and Orsted, seeking damages and other relief.

X alleged that shortly after CEO Musk acquired Twitter in 2022 and carried out large-scale restructuring, the World Federation of Advertisers "illegally led a boycott," which constitutes a violation of antitrust laws. On the same day, CEO Musk posted on his X account, "I have been kind for two years, but only heard empty words," adding, "Now it’s war."

Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, stated in a video announcement, "This lawsuit is partly based on evidence uncovered by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee," and said, "Some companies organized a systematic illegal boycott against X." She claimed that X suffered billions of dollars in damages as a victim of this organized illegal boycott, stating, "They conspired to boycott and threatened our ability to prosper."

The Associated Press noted that this lawsuit focuses on early cases following CEO Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and is not related to the anti-Semitism disputes triggered by Musk’s posts in November 2023. At that time, when many companies stopped advertising on X, CEO Musk posted messages using profanity telling them to leave.