Elon Musk's social media company, X, took legal action Monday against Media Matters for America and one of its personnel over a research report the progressive watchdog organisation released that stated Nazi material appeared on the X app alongside ads from major corporations. The news of the lawsuit arrived with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton revealing an investigation into Media Matters for allegedly fraudulent conduct. "We are carefully analysing the issue to make certain that the public has not been misled by the strategies of radical left-wing organisations that would love nothing more than to restrict freedom by reducing involvement in the public domain," Paxton said in a news release, which Musk also shared on X. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced Sunday on X that his department was likewise studying the matter. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, seeks unspecified damages, as well as a court order for Media Matters to remove the article. Media Matters President Angelo Carusone declared the lawsuit was a "frivolous" attempt to silence X's critics. "This is a frivolous lawsuit meant to bully X's critics into silence. Media Matters stands behind its reporting and looks forward to winning in court," he said in an announcement. The lawsuit signifies a huge escalation of the conflict involving Musk, his opponents and X's unreliable relationship with advertisers. Musk provoked a storm of criticism last Wednesday when he published remarks on X supporting a conspiracy theory that many consider antisemitic, and Media Matters posted its report the next day stating Nazi posts had run with ads from Apple, IBM and other firms. Numerous of those advertisers have briefly halted their spending on X in light of the report. (Among them are Comcast and NBCUniversal. Comcast owns NBCUniversal, which is the parent company of NBC News.)In the lawsuit, X declares that Media Matters' illustration of the app was inaccurate because the article did not represent what ordinary users witness. "Media Matters knowingly and maliciously designed side-by-side images representing advertisers' posts on X Corp.'s social media platform beside Neo-Nazi and white-nationalist fringe content and then presented these manufactured images as if they were what regular X users observe on the platform," the lawsuit states. The purpose was to cause harm to X's advertising income, according to the complaint.
David Brock, political consultant and commentator, founded Media Matters in 2004. The website, a nonprofit, was a result of Brock's transformation from a former right-wing journalist to a Democrat in the 1990s. Eric Hananoki, a senior investigative reporter for Media Matters and the author of the article, was named as a defendant in the lawsuit; he did not give an immediate comment on the matter. The lawsuit contains three distinct claims. It alleges that Media Matters "intentionally interfered with contracts" between X and its advertisers, that Media Matters disparaged X with false statements "with clear malice" as they were aware, and that it unlawfully interfered with business relationships. Under the First Amendment as approved by the Supreme Court, public figures must show proof of actual malice to win claims such as defamation. Daxton Stewart, a professor of journalism at Texas Christian University and a lawyer, called the lawsuit "frivolous." Stewart claims that instead of protecting free speech, the lawsuit penalizes the website. "The huge problem is the First Amendment," Stewart wrote in an email. "The court is being asked to order the takedown of a protected commentary, and the plaintiff is trying to skirt this issue with contract interference language that suggests advertisers left the platform because of a Media Matters report rather than their own judgment."
He then went on to say that it is "utter nonsense" of how self-described free speech warriors operate today, yet added that the ultimate aim is to limit free speech, which is something everyone must hope doesn't bear out. Musk and X do not contest the presence of Nazi-related material on the app, and Musk has defended it as an exercise of free speech. In a statement posted on Friday, Musk stated that of the nine posts Media Matters called attention to, only one of them violated X's content policies, and that the app had taken steps to reduce its reach. These posts, according to Media Matters, included a Holocaust denial, a quote from Hitler with a picture of him, and a post claiming that Nazi Germany was a “spiritual awakening.”
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