After a devastating advertiser exodus last week involving some of the world’s largest media companies, X owner Elon Musk is suing the progressive watchdog group Media Matters over its analysis highlighting antisemitic and pro-Nazi content on X — a report that appeared to play a significant role in the massive and highly damaging brand revolt.

The lawsuit filed Monday accuses Media Matters of distorting how likely it is for ads to appear beside extremist content on X, alleging that the group’s testing methodology was not representative of how real users experience the site.

“Media Matters knowingly and maliciously manufactured side-by-side images depicting advertisers’ posts on X Corp.’s social media platform beside Neo-Nazi and white-nationalist fringe content and then portrayed these manufactured images as if they were what typical X users experience on the platform,” the complaint filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas said. “Media Matters designed both these images and its resulting media strategy to drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp.”

  • protist
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    1 year ago

    Texas does have anti-SLAPP laws:

    The Texas Citizens Participation Act protects your rights by giving you:

    Anti-SLAPP Motion to Dismiss: This motion asks the court to promptly end lawsuits that violate the Texas Citizens Participation Act.

    Help paying for a lawyer: If you win your Anti-SLAPP Motion to Dismiss, the other side may have to pay your attorney’s fees.

    Protection: The court may impose sanctions on the other party to discourage them from filing a SLAPP lawsuit against others in the future.

    Whether a judge in the northern district of Texas agrees to implement these remedies is less clear

      • protist
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        1 year ago

        Ok got it, and since this was always going to be filed in Federal Court, the jurisdiction didn’t particularly matter as far as anti-SLAPP laws are concerned