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.
For something that isn't a crime. Why are we feeding this troll attention? Let him fall off the face of the earth and all his "projects" fail.
With the way Tesla is tanking, I'll say
If they were making shit up to get people to drop Twitter, maybe there'd be a case, and I half believe Musk believes his nonsense so believes they are.
But they aren't.
It ain't flat.
That's what you took away from that comment? Man... shilling for Elon must be a literal job for you.
Removed
Fuck round earth, fuck flat earth, I’m “Italian Sub Compact earth” all the way
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 thinks he's a lot of things. In reality, he's just a living, breathing example of Dunning-Kruger in action.
And his meager accomplishments prove it!
He's also now donating to Trump, who I believe absolutely will punish people for Musk, if elected.