Elon Musk's X (formerly known as Twitter) is suing Media Matters for America for defamation, alleging they defamed the platform following a report that said major brand ads appeared next to posts touting Hitler and the Nazi party. Musk and X have faced backlash since the report was published Thursday, causing several major advertisers to pull ads from the platform in response.
Filed in a U.S. District Court in Texas, the lawsuit claims Media Matters defamed the company. "Defendant Media Matters for America (“Media Matters”) is a self-proclaimed media watchdog that decided it would not let the truth get in the way of a story it wanted to publish about X Corp. Looking to portray X’s social networking platform as being dominated by “white nationalist and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories,” 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. Media Matters designed both these images and its resulting media strategy to drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp," said the company in its court filing.
X said in its filing, "this November alone Media Matters released over twenty articles (and counting) disparaging both X Corp. and Elon Musk—a blatant smear campaign."
On the same day as X filed its lawsuit, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced he was opening an investigation into Media Matters.
“We are examining the issue closely to ensure that the public has not been deceived by the schemes of radical left-wing organizations who would like nothing more than to limit freedom by reducing participation in the public square,” said Attorney General Paxton.