After the House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary released a report accusing the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) of colluding with companies to censor conservative voices online, Elon Musk chimed in. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Musk wrote that X “has no choice but to file suit against the perpetrators and collaborators” behind an advertiser boycott on his platform.
“Hopefully, some states will consider criminal prosecution,” Musk wrote, leading several X users to suggest that Musk wants it to be illegal for brands to refuse to advertise on X.
Among other allegations, Congress’ report claimed that GARM—which is part of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), whose members “represent roughly 90 percent of global advertising spend, or almost one trillion dollars annually”—directed advertisers to boycott Twitter shortly after Musk took over the platform.
Twitter/X’s revenue tanked after Musk’s takeover, with Bloomberg reporting last month that X lost almost 40 percent of revenue in the first six months of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. That’s worse than prior estimates last May, which put Twitter’s loss around one-third of its total valuation. Ars chronicled the worst impacts of the ad boycott, including sharp drop-offs in the US, where an internal Twitter presentation leaked to The New York Times showed Twitter’s ad revenue was down by as much as 59 percent “for the five weeks from April 1 to the first week of May” in 2023.
Last year, Musk sued other “collaborators” in the X boycott, including hate speech researchers, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), and Media Matters for America (MMFA). However, his suit against the CCDH was dismissed this March, and Media Matters has claimed that Musk filing his MMFA lawsuit in Texas may be “fatal” because of a jurisdictional defect.
Man who claims hes a libertarian wants government to punish those who don’t give him money.
Oh, nonono. You simply misunderstood him, because he’s such a genius. Didn’t you hear that he thinks he is literally the smartest engineer alive on this planet? Surely he’s not following suit of other nutjobs and simply trying to weaponize the judicial system in his favor because he essentially has unlimited money? This guy?? Nooooo…
He’s also now donating to Trump, who I believe absolutely will punish people for Musk, if elected.
Can X sue Musk for telling advertisers to go fuck themselves rather than addressing their concerns over his dumpster fire decisions?
He privatized and fired the board, remember? Nobody else inside to hold him accountable for being a non-stop fuckup.
There are the shareholders…
Institutional only now, and they’re all big companies who Musk strung along for the ride. He’s already on the hook with them, and they are obviously not pleased. He still the majority shareholder, and it’s lost 75% of its value since he took it over, and it’s clearly going to just bleed to death. They’ve already lost their investments.
You say “institutional investors” as if it’s their money they’re losing. It isn’t. It’s everybody’s 401(k)s and IRAs, held through mutual funds that disenfranchise them from being able to vote their shares and put that power in the hands of the “institutions” (read: fund managers) instead.
Point is, not only is Musk still fucking over real-people shareholders, they’re the second-class ones who can’t even do anything about it!
No.
Took me all of 2 seconds: here
Largest shareholders include BlackRock Inc., Vanguard Group Inc, Pentwater Capital Management LP, Pentwater Capital Management LP, Dimensional Fund Advisors Lp, State Street Corp, HAP Trading, LLC, Bluefin Capital Management, Llc, IJH - iShares Core S&P Mid-Cap ETF, and VTSMX - Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund
Notice the mutual funds in here? That person is right.
…Are you stupid? Do you know what things like Blackrock and Vanguard are, and what they do? The entire point of those companies is that they hold and invest other people’s money.
Yes, they have more money than small nations. They are using their CAPITAL to invest. It’s literally a legal requirement to do so in all developed markets, and these are global companies doing so. They are spending your retirement doing it. They’re spending thebinsane amount of money you give them as a fee to do it. They’d be in court today if they were doing what you’re suggesting. In the US, anything designated as a retirement fund is only held my institutions (banks) that designate themselves as such, and SEC regulations prevent them from using any NON-CAPITAL cash from investing in this way.
and it’s clearly going to just bleed to death
When do you predict twitter will shut down, or be sold my Musk?
I could have sworn I read that Musk was a free speech absolutist. Freedom for me but not for thee?
Nope he’s just a fascist hiding behind free speech.
Their obsession with “freeze peach” has always been a facade to their true desire which is to censor opposing viewpoints and make their viewpoints the only form of acceptable speech.
You’ll note that everything outside those bounds is “woke” and unacceptable
He certainly exercises his free speech to lie about his advocacy for free speech.
He only believes in the first 22 words of the first amendment. If you want to speak about what he has done, or (far worse) gather with others that share your beliefs to speak extra loud… straight to jail.
I could of sworn I read that shit doesn’t actually stink, but the pile of emperic evidence has led me to believe otherwise.
When a business blames its customers for choosing to no longer be its customers, it’s a sure sign the business is declining. Depending on the severity, it’s often a sign the business is failing.
This applies here, as well as any time you see an article that millennials are killing <business/industry/etc>. It also applies when an entertainer blames their (potential) audience for not enjoying their work. See Jerry Seinfeld, Kid Rock, etc.
No one owes your business any patronage.
Actually if we’re referring to twitter’s customers, Musk changed it so that the customers aren’t the advertisers any more, but the users.
It’s a really good move for the quality of the thing. It realigns twitter’s incentives to those of the users, whereas before twitter was only serving advertisers.
While I would generally agree with that statement (and gave you an up vote for it), I feel like Musk twisted that away from any normal business move.
For instance, many customers aren’t paying for premium features. Rather, they were extorted into paying, because their professional lives depend on it.
And even after all that, it’s not like it’s catering to users on any level. No one is saying that Twitter is better now. Well, no one except the Russian bots and the Nazis.
So this is the laser-like focus on the future of Tesla that 56 billion dollars bought, huh?
Such brilliant minds are truly beyond our understanding, clearly.
The neat thing is that if you have a 401k or mutual funds or whatever there’s a good chance your money voted to give this fuckwit his 56 billion. Looking at you, Vanguard.
They’re afraid that Tesla’s stock price under a rational CEO will suffer a market correction and drop to where it should be. In other words, they want to keep Musk out of fear and greed.
Didn’t Musk tell his advertisers to leave the platform if they didn’t like Twitter anymore? Wouldn’t that alone make any tort dead upon filing?
Yeah it ties up a few billable hours but we’re not exactly talking about companies that can’t afford it.
Didn’t he tell them to “go fuck yourselves”?
Yeah, he said something like “You try to blackmail me? With money? Go fuck yourselves”.
Til not buying things is blackmailing companies
Say Elonald, why don’t you follow your own advice…?
Musk wrote that X “has no choice but to file suit against the perpetrators and collaborators” behind an advertiser boycott on his platform.
So he’s going to sue himself then?
If somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.
Elon Musk, 2023
I guess it was pretty clear. What a clown.
Well I heard about a guy that told the collective advertisres of the platform to “go fuck themselves”, maybe this guy should be investigated.
deleted by creator
Everyone knows that only counts if you’re brown
To that we say… Go fuck yourself?
As earth is my witness, I promise I did not do any drugs before coming here.
Earth will know the truth!
If we go bankrupt, it’s all those pesky customers running away. Just because we are Nazis. And now they are colluding against Nazism!
I was really hoping someone else said it already, but… is this really “Technology news”? It’s about a billionaire and advertising on his social media website.
Social media’s impact on society is relevant to technology. I would even say it is one of the most important questions in relation to technology today. So, how an owner tries to silence criticisms of his social media site for spreading fascism seems relevant to me.
Boycotts are speech. Calling for boycotts is speech. I’ve been told by every corporate leader and the Supreme Court that spending money is a form of speech. I would think that a free speech advocate would appreciate these things. Of course, like all outspoken libertarians, Musk’s positions are not well considered, consistent, nor actually libertarian when it doesn’t suit his own business or ideological* interests. This dude sucks at everything he does and his success perfectly demonstrates the fallacy of meritocracy in this society.
- usually racist
But the free market…
advertising is the only competitive market left. I guess its easier for his ego to rationalize that everyone is teaming up against him than admit he’s a moron.
