Elon Musk’s X plans to add more defendants to its lawsuit against advertisers, alleging illegal collusion to boycott the platform.
They filed the lawsuit back in August in Texas, claiming that members of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media were in cahoots to withhold a ton of ad revenue from X, which used to be Twitter. Right now, the defendants include big names like CVS Health, Mars, and Twitch, with Unilever having dropped out after reaching a deal.
Recently, X’s legal team said they plan to file a second amended complaint, which will include these new defendants. They’re set to share a draft of this complaint with the current defendants by January 20 and file it officially by January 25.
Interestingly, reps from X and the other companies haven’t commented on this yet. The WFA, which is part of the lawsuit, has said they’re ready to defend themselves and believe they followed the law.
This news comes at a tricky time for advertisers, especially with the whole “brand safety” debate heating up. A lot of X’s claims are based on an investigation led by Rep. Jim Jordan, who’s looking into whether advertisers were working together to defund conservative voices, which could be a violation of antitrust laws.
Meanwhile, the WFA is also facing another lawsuit from Rumble, which claims that they and some ad agencies agreed to limit advertising on social platforms. Plus, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating the WFA over these advertiser boycotts.
In the midst of all this, Meta is changing its content moderation policies, which has some advertisers on edge. But so far, it seems brands are hesitant to pull their ad dollars from Meta, likely because they’re so reliant on it. It’s a wild time in the advertising world!
