It didn’t exactly open “split second” court this morning as promised, but Elon Musk has now filed his self-described “thermonuclear lawsuit” against Media Matters.
The complaint seeking a jury trial, filed in federal court in Texas, says, “Defendant Media Matters for America is a self-proclaimed media watchdog that has decided that the truth in any story it chooses to publish about X Corp. Will not let it come in the way.” , Musk and (Read Elon Musk’s lawsuit over pro-Nazi ad placement allegations here)
“Media Matters manipulated the algorithms governing the user experience on that these pairings are anything but what they really are: manufactured, inorganic, and exceptionally rare,” said Texas firms S|L Law PLLC and Stone Hilton PLLC in a 15-page filing on their client’s platform Protocol. But a backhand swipe has been claimed.
Angered by the seemingly damaging study by the media watchdog, Musk first launched his legal threats late on November 17. As Media Matters reported more results, “As Musk Endorses Antisemitic Conspiracy Theory, X Is Placing Ads for Apple, Bravo, IBM, Oracle, and ” article, Apple, Disney, Comcast, Paramount Global, IBM, Warner Bros. Discovery and others suspended their ad buying and presence on X/Twitter.
It’s worth noting that none of the media companies and others actually gave any reason as to why they stopped their ad campaigns on the increasingly chaotic has as much to do with the expansion of personal online antisemitic outcry as the allegations of pro-Nazi ad placement.
That anti-Semitic amplification retweet was condemned by the White House last week, with Musk clearly wanting to shift the narrative. First, as deep-pocketed advertisers jumped in, the Tesla/SpaceX boss gushed on his social media platforms, “Many of the largest advertisers are the biggest oppressors of your right to free speech.” He then vowed to end Media Matters and their so-called “fraudulent attacks on our company”, as well as reaffirming the veracity of his research.
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After Musk threatened to drop his lawsuit late last week, first on Monday, Media Matters president Angelo Carusone hit back. “Far from claiming to be pro-free speech, Musk is a bully who threatens meritless lawsuits in an effort to silence a report he even confirmed was accurate,” Carusone said. “Musk acknowledged that the ads we identified were running with pro-Nazi content. If he sues us, we will win.”
Today, after the lawsuit was filed, Carusone said: “This is a frivolous lawsuit whose purpose is to intimidate X’s critics into silence. Media Matters stands behind its reporting and looks forward to victory in court.”
Now that an actual lawsuit has been filed, Musk will have to hand over materials on the platform’s algorithms’ internal advertising decisions and more, lifting the curtain on what could prove to be make-or-break in the case.
On a weekend when another SpaceX launch ended in an explosion, Musk repeatedly took to X/Twitter this morning to take another pre-litigation swipe at Media Matters:
This is not Musk’s first lawsuit against a media monitoring organization.
Last summer, X/Twitter sued the Center for Countering Digital Hate for defamation over reports on the group’s lack of hate speech railings on the platform. On November 16, the group filed a motion to dismiss an anti-SLAPP motion filed the previous week, arguing that in raising the issue of how CCDH collected its data, Musk’s platform made “baseless claims.” Were”.
“Clearly unhappy with its position in the marketplace of ideas, Corp., lawyers for the group wrote. “Thus, Wants compensation for Rs.
The erratic Musk had previously threatened legal action against other critics over the years, but did not follow through. In September, when the Anti-Defamation League sharply criticized X/Twitter for amplifying anti-Semitism and other hate speech, Musk promised to sue — but never did. The South African billionaire blamed ADL for a 60% decline in advertising on the social media platform, which he bought for more than $44 billion last year.
Musk visited the White House again on Monday to repeat criticism of his anti-Semitic retweets:
@PressSecHe reiterated that the White House condemns Elon Musk’s promotion of an anti-Semitic post last week and says it will continue to respond to such comments. He did not say whether WH was considering stopping using X/Twitter. pic.twitter.com/kQpwNfLl26
– Ted Johnson (@tedstew) 20 November 2023