Elon Musk’s social media company, X, sued Media Matters for America and one of its staff members Monday over an investigative report the progressive watchdog organization published saying Nazi content ran on the X app alongside advertisements from major corporations.
News of the lawsuit coincided with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s announcing an investigation into Media Matters for possible fraudulent
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,” Paxton said in a news release that Musk also posted to X.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said Sunday on X that his team was also looking into the matter. Bailey and Paxton are Republicans.
The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, seeks unspecified damages, as well as an order from the court for Media Matters to remove the article.
Media Matters President Angelo Carusone said the website would defend itself.
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 a statement.
The lawsuit is a major escalation of a fight involving Musk, his critics and X’s shaky relationship with advertisers. Musk set off a firestorm last Wednesday when he published comments on X embracing a conspiracy theory that many consider antisemitic, and Media Matters published its report the next day saying Nazi posts had run next to ads from Apple, IBM and other companies.
Many of those advertisers have paused their spending on X in response to the report. (They include Comcast and NBCUniversal. Comcast owns NBCUniversal, which is the parent company of NBC News.)
In the lawsuit, X alleges that Media Matters’ portrayal of the app is untrue because its article did not reflect what typical users see.
Credit : NBC News
