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.
Meanwhile, toilets lobby to jail everyone that refuses to eat out of them.
But the free market…
If he doesn’t like being blackmailed he could always just fund Twitter himself.
TIL advertisement market is worth 1000 billion $.
Assuming 2 billion people owning an internet capable device, that’s 500 $ per person.
It’s estimated to be around 66% of the global population, or 5.35b people… so $186.92 per person
Guess my number was old. :(
We’re worth less now because they’ve already taken a bunch of our money.
Yes yes. We see that online people has gone from 2B -> 5.3B. Oopsie daisy my numbers must be out of date.
Meanwhile “what has capitalism ever done for humanity??”
Twitter are criminals who steal our computing with proprietary software.
But if I call for slavers to get the blade, I’m somehow the bad guy.
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.
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!
So that is why he is donating to the Trump campaign. Best to get in the list of people he wishes to be persecuted sooner than later. Apparently it’s first come first serve.
Just as long as “serve” doesn’t mean “pay” because then it’s first come never serve.
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…?
Well I heard about a guy that told the collective advertisres of the platform to “go fuck themselves”, maybe this guy should be investigated.
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.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
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.
There is no telling yet if Yaccarino’s seeming support of GARM may strain her relationship with Musk, who has parted ways with several X executives during his reign over content moderation conflicts.
The Committee on the Judiciary reported that GARM may be violating the Sherman Act, which “makes unreasonable restraints of trade illegal,” including certain cases when “group boycotts and coordinated actions” harm consumers.
This allegedly worked to “rob consumers of choices” and “is likely illegal under the antitrust laws,” in addition to threatening “fundamental American freedoms,” the committee’s report said.
"GARM creates voluntary industry standards on brand safety and suitability which media sellers and ad tech companies can voluntarily adopt, adapt or reject.
“In consultation with legal counsel, WFA maintains robust and effective compliance policies designed to enhance competition,” GARM told Ars.
The original article contains 926 words, the summary contains 166 words. Saved 82%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
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
…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.
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.
