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.
I could have sworn I read that Musk was a free speech absolutist. Freedom for me but not for thee?
This is the case with literally every conservative crowing about “free speech”. They want full freedom for themselves so that no matter what they say there can’t be any negative consequences or reactions, and everybody else can get fucked and die in an extermination camp
and the home of the braaaaaaave!
*some terms and conditions apply, bravery not available in most areas
The power of maaaaanyyyyyyyyyy 🤮
Their obsession with “freeze peach” has always been a facade to their true desire which is to censor opposing viewpoints and make their viewpoints the only form of acceptable speech.
You’ll note that everything outside those bounds is “woke” and unacceptable
Nope he’s just a fascist hiding behind free speech.
He only believes in the first 22 words of the first amendment. If you want to speak about what he has done, or (far worse) gather with others that share your beliefs to speak extra loud… straight to jail.
I could of sworn I read that shit doesn’t actually stink, but the pile of emperic evidence has led me to believe otherwise.
He certainly exercises his free speech to lie about his advocacy for free speech.
Musk wants freedom of speech for people. But his definition of “people” is very, very narrow.
And now you know why he’s donating to the Trump campaign.
Because with the shift of power with project 2025 he can actually do this.
So this is the laser-like focus on the future of Tesla that 56 billion dollars bought, huh?
They’re afraid that Tesla’s stock price under a rational CEO will suffer a market correction and drop to where it should be. In other words, they want to keep Musk out of fear and greed.
Such brilliant minds are truly beyond our understanding, clearly.
The neat thing is that if you have a 401k or mutual funds or whatever there’s a good chance your money voted to give this fuckwit his 56 billion. Looking at you, Vanguard.
Man who claims hes a libertarian wants government to punish those who don’t give him money.
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.
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
fall off the face of the earth
It ain’t flat.
It ain’t fiat
Fuck round earth, fuck flat earth, I’m “Italian Sub Compact earth” all the way
That’s what you took away from that comment? Man… shilling for Elon must be a literal job for you.
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.
He’s also now donating to Trump, who I believe absolutely will punish people for Musk, if elected.
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!
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…?
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.
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
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.
…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.
Cute of him to think he is as valuable as Israel
What do you mean by this? Elon is shit but he still has more value than a genocidal state running on hate imo.
Israel lobby made it illegal for US companies and government workers to boycott israel.
What the actual fuck…
AIPAC lobbied for this shite and got it done…
Now remember this when your favourite daddy politicians tells you how congress can’t accomplish anything due to partisan grid lock ;)
I read a little on the wiki page you linked, and it seems it was in fact not passed.
The act consisted of House and Senate bills H.R. 1697 and S. 720 and died in Congress
I think I linked the wrong wiki
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/999
Here is the law.
Better wiki: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-BDS_laws
Looks criminal part is at the state level with 38 passing such laws.
Another day, another reason to be glad I live in Massachusetts!
Ah okay, I figured I was misunderstanding what you meant.
Wasn’t he crying that he can’t be extorted with money or something? Fucking cry baby.
Dude literally told advertisers to go fuck themselves and is now like “well wait, I didn’t mean it like that” lmao
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!
New law, everyone must be nice to me :(
If he doesn’t like being blackmailed he could always just fund Twitter himself.
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.
