Elon Musk announced this week that he is planning on filing a “thermonuclear lawsuit” against the left wing Media Matters, after they claimed to have found ads on X (formerly Twitter) on pro-Nazi and white nationalist posts, and pulled their revenue due to their concerns of anti-semitism on the platform.
On Friday, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Comcast/NBCUniversal, Lionsgate and Paramount Global said they were pausing their ads on X, coming after IBM said it was halting ad spending a day earlier. Apple also is suspending advertising spending on X, per an Axios report.
The companies pulled their ads after the media watchdog Media Matters claimed that they found corporate advertisements by IBM, Apple, Oracle and Comcast’s Xfinity and others were being placed alongside antisemitic content, including posts praising Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
“The split second court opens on Monday, X Corp will be filing a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and ALL those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company,” Musk said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“This week Media Matters for America posted a story that completely misrepresented the real experience on X, in another attempt to undermine freedom of speech and mislead advertisers,” Musk said. “Media Matters created an alternate account and curated the posts and advertising appearing on the account’s timeline to misinform advertisers about the placement of their posts.”
Musk added “Media Matters is pure evil”.
Reuters reported that “Musk reignited antisemitism concerns on X this week after he appeared to publicly endorse the sentiments of an X user who accused Jews in America of promoting “hatred against whites“, although Musk has since come out and denied the allegations.
Musk later added that ” ‘decolonization’, ‘from the river to the sea’ and similar euphemisms necessarily imply genocide,” and users saying them would be banned from X — earning praise from the Anti-Defamation League.
When asked for a comment, Media Matters provided a statement from president Angelo Carusone stating “Far from the free speech advocate he claims to be, Musk is a bully who threatens meritless lawsuits in an attempt to silence reporting that he even confirmed is accurate. Musk admitted the ads at issue ran alongside the pro-Nazi content we identified. If he does sue us, we will win.”