Elon Musk sues Media Matters for reports of advertisers dropping Twitter/X due to antisemitism

@sargentd: I don't know why you bother posting videos. If they're longer than a couple minutes, most people here don't watch them.

@mattbbpl: True, most people prefer tik toks and memes.

You can lead a horse to water..

If one lurker checks it out tho..

Worth it

Ahh good old conservatives. They are totally for free speech, until they suddenly hate free speech when it's for anyone but conservatives.🤷‍♀️

Isn't this Elon's 3rd lawsuit on the similar issue? The other two having went nowhere? All three appear to be Elon getting upset at mean facts, and then trying to shut people up. Very weird behavior.

This is very poor citation. Anyway, legal experts already know it's nothing:

Does Elon Musk’s Media Matters Lawsuit Have a Chance? (nymag.com)

And they are typically from joke sources like Greenwald's youtube channel, not even remotely valid citation. He basically linked a far right op-ed in video format and even less sourcing somehow. Amazing.

That means you tricked a lurker. Most of your links are false or wild op-eds, and legal experts are laughing at this lawsuit. Just like the other 2 lawsuits, which have went nowhere.

@robertos: you are mad mad mad lol

Apart from never proving Elon's claims on MM, this far right op-ed in youtube format doesn't confront the fact those advertisers saw Elon's antisemitic tweet. MM did not make that tweet up.

Apple to pause advertising on X after Musk backs antisemitic post (axios.com)

The big picture: Musk faced backlash for endorsing an antisemitic postWednesday, as 164 Jewish rabbis and activists upped their call to Apple, Google, Amazon and Disney to stop advertising on X, and for Apple and Google to remove it from their platforms.

I guess he's going to sue himself....and 164 Jewish Rabbis too. 😅

I literally gave you expert opinions from legal experts and conflicting statements from Apple, and you just responded like a child in this post. I had that happen in my thread last week too with another poster, even after I was nice to him. What's up with the far right posters at this site? Why do they post in this type of manner?

Sony having gotten rid of X on their platforms turned out to be a really good call, all things considered.

And just... yikes. Defending some racist conspiracy theories in this thread. Especially as Lawyers have already noted the same thing we have, this is a frivolous lawsuit. But I hope Musk goes through with it. Just so Musk can further destroy his own brand.

It is almost like pushing coders to focus on quantity of code, rather than quality, results in PR disasters like this.

The problem is t hat wasting 5-10 minutes listening to listen to the usual low quality content is not worth the time investment. In 2 minutes I can read through an article, containing far more accurate information in a much shorter period of time.

@Maroxad: to each thier own I like video format because I can play it in the background while multi tasking doing other things.

It's just going to go nowhere,

Elon Musk’s ‘thermonuclear’ lawsuit over hate-adjacent ads on X… actually confirms them | TechCrunch

The lawsuit was indeed filed, but it appears to be missing the promised warhead. You can read ithere, it’s quite short. The company alleges that Media Matters defamed X, having “manufactured” or “contrived” the images; that it had not “found” the ads as claimed, but rather had “createdthese pairings in secrecy.” (Emphasis theirs.)

So there does not appear to be anything inherently fraudulent or manufactured about claiming those ads appeared next to that content. Because they did. It just hadn’t happened to an “authentic user” yet, but the conditions for that to happen were not really that outlandish. Angelo Carusone, who heads up Media Matters, alsopointed out on Xshortly after Yaccarino’s confirmation that ads were placed on a search for “killjews.”

The edge case shown by Media Matters may not be representative of the average user, but it does show something that is perfectly possible on X, and advertisers seem to have, quite rationally, declined to take that risk. Even ones that weren’t mentioned, X’s lawyers write:

Media Matters’ manipulation was so severe that companies not even featured in the article also pulled ads from X. These companies include Lionsgate, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, and Sony.

That’s probably not true. For instance, Lionsgate specifically said that “Elon’s tweet” was the reason for their decision to leave.

The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District Court of Texas, demands $100,000 in damages and a jury trial, though neither outcome seems likely.

Like the ADL and CCDH lawsuits (which will also fail), these are just publicity stunts intended to rile up his polo shirt wearing fans and scare watchdog groups.

@robertos: Hey! What's wrong with polo shirts?

@mattbbpl said:

@silentchief said:

@Maroxad said:

Elon Musk doesnt care about Free Speech.

He only wields it as a shield to protect himself. But otherwise he gladly tries to suppress dissenting voices.

Elon made a 100% valid point and the leftwing media do what they always do and just called him a racist. They deserve what's coming.

For the uninitiated, here's the tweet in question:

Full context first followed by expanded middle tweet:

YIKES.

True too much of a broad brush, I shoulda' said TikiTorchers.

Musk's lawsuit probably won't go anywhere, and he'll likely withdraw than afford Media Matters the opportuniry to subpeona him and the company for records.

But ultra right wing Texas is suing Media Matters for fraud. Fuuuck Texas. Coming from the Texas AG. Their governor is also a sick puppy, he's trying to pardon someone who murdered a BLM protester, premeditated in cold blood, because he's a political hack.

Musk has other things to worry himself over, like lawsuits where a judge just ruled Musk and Tesla knew of the defective auto-pilot features, and today an out of control Tesla crashing through the the US-Canada border and exploding and everyone is running around saying "terrorism!" buuuut it's just a Tesla doing what Tesla's do.

I think the point Elon was making was that MM intentionally misrepresented its claims by its own manipulative methods and thus peer-reviewing it/recreating the scenario made the likelihood extremely rare. They both have clear angles, and it's not surprising to anyone that MM would do that anyways.

@Stevo_the_gamer: But even Elon's own description of events says they just used the service. Under what conditions does he expect to win?

Also take note his lawyers are straight up lying in some of that lawsuit.

Two of the companies directly said they stopped advertising because of Musk's own antisemitism, not MM's report. Although said MM report's conclusion was confirmed real by the same lawsuit, laughably enough. They just didn't like the methodology, which will never hold up in court.

He's trying the same nonsense with two other companies that have much more solid reports. Dude is a clown.

good lord, EVERYTHING elon touches wrt twitter turns to shit these days. seriously, if he just bought twitter and did **** all for a year it'd be worth much more and be a more worthwhile operation than him trying to "improve" things.

Elon's lawyers should use this in their legal case, just before the lawsuit gets dropped. I mean it's not like they have much else to go off on. 🤣

Don’t know how anyone can say this is not mental illness. The guy is a damn loon.

@MirkoS77: I'd image those who believe him are worse.

wtf was that

@SOedipus: I now have a second reason to avoid videos posted here.

Elon Musk is clearly a right-wing grifter, just like Donald Trump. Both couldn't care less about right-wing politics, but are grifting for clout and infamy.

However, a by-product of Elon Musk's commitment to free speech (whether he really means it or not) is that X has ironically given a voice to many marginalized people, left-wingers, anti-war activists and war victims who've been silenced by mainstream media for decades. The irony is that the same platform being used by Neo-Nazis to peddle white-supremacist rhetoric is the same platform being used to expose human rights abuses being perpetrated by governments and covered-up by mainstream media. Free speech is like Pandora's box.

Would have to be.

Regardless of your twisted view of everything being evil that is not left wing.

I think your gears are turning that having an open platform enables both MAGA populist and more Prog Leftists to speak freely.

It's not pandoras box, it benefits everyone that doesn't want more censorship and state controlled narrative. Elons point was never to let one side speak only.. what your refering to as "pandoras box" is just having an open platform for all sides. That was kind of the point in the first place my guy.

@sargentd: Completely false strawman. As a realist, I reject your binary "left vs. right" mentality.

You're just repeating what I said back to me. Like I said, free speech allows all kinds of dissenting voices to be heard. That includes MAGA populists and progressive leftists alike, among other groups of people.

There are pros and cons to everything in life. Free speech is no exception. There is a debate to be had on where we draw the line. On one extreme, censorship can be dangerous and lead to totalitarianism. Yet on the other extreme, complete unrestrained free speech would allow calls for violence, doxxing, death threats, etc.

@Jag85: @sargentd: And to relate that back to the topic, Musk has his open platform. At the very least, he can say (almost) whatever he wants on it, he owns it. And he did.

And other people/organizations who pay him for an amplified voice on that platform decided that 1) they no longer want their message on the platform and 2) they don't want to pay him for it. Those are both examples of them exercising their free speech rights, not restricting Musk's.

Right, but it more the manipulation of the service to paint an unrealistic scenario that was surgically curated to create a narrative. Again, that's the M.O. of Media Matters regardless so I'm not sure why Elon would waste his time and money on it; but I imagine it's largely ego driven.

@mattbbpl: Once you get down to it. Free speech is actually really complicated. Once you start factoring in positive and negative freedoms.

This is merely another situation of Elon Musk cracking down on teh speech of others. For holding him accountable. And Media Matters are right to do so. One of the responsibilities of media is to hold those in power accountable for their actions.

Speaking as a software engineer. If my code even ran a risk of something along these lines of happening, I would be out of a job. It doesnt matter if it is unlikely. Advertisers don't like taking risks. Brand safety is extremely important.

Straw-Man. He never said that.

Although I'd probably agree even he did for two examples of far right ideas he gave. They are pretty evil. Neo Nazism and White Supremacy. Theories of which Elongate Muskrat endorsed. Or are you suggesting these are not evil?

Ehh....

Twitter fulfilling more government censorship requests under Musk | Social Media News | Al Jazeera

Ladies and gentlemen, the Free Speech Absolutist. Vastly increasing censorship requests from authoritarian dumps more than BEFORE he took over.

Except left leaning organizations or journalists that put out facts which hurt his feelings. Then he sues them with frivolous lawsuits that will probably be thrown out, in order to scare them and others. Or just banning people that hurt his feely feels.

Journalists who wrote about owner Elon Musk suspended from Twitter | PBS NewsHour

Elon Musk sues disinformation researchers : NPR

Of course non of this takes away from the fact two of the companies named in this sham lawsuit literally said they stopped advertising due to Elon's direct antisemitism statements. Not Media Matters' report. Legal experts laughing at the filing all week.

He is great. Please come to Canada, and we give you our Trudeau.

Hard Pass

@sargentd: Do you think it is blackmailing or the use of free speech?

not sure could look at it both ways, but i respect Elon for saying he'd rather them just not advertise there at all instead of telling will only advertise if you censor *blank*. Respect. f' em. Think he's gotten pushed around to the point he doesnt care at all.

Isn't blackmail when you threaten to expose someone if they don't pay you? This sounds like companies making a choice to walk away, and him feeling entitled to their support.

This is business, and if it makes business sense to support him then others would. It has always been difficult to turn a profit for the company. Since they started in 2006, their first profitable year was in 2018, but they didn't sustain or increase those figures. If someone believes in what he's doing then they will support him, he will find advertising that way.

i think what makes it different here, is these companies are telling him to change the way the platform runs. If you don't want to advertise that's fine, but you cant make demands to the platform to change how its run. Elon's just telling them, im not changing the company how an advertiser wants just because they give me money to advertise on it. I don't think he's being entitled at all, to the contrary i actually see these companies being the ones acting entitled, as if they are owed something from the platform because they paid to advertise there.

Interesting interview. Great listen

That seems like negotiations and he is free to reject them, which he did. Maybe you're right that he doesn't feel entitled to their support, and he is free to make the complaint, which he did. I just wonder why he is not indifferent about this, many companies can't get deals with everyone they want for various reasons including brand image, and this is pretty standard.

In the end it's a business so I am interested to see what are the next steps to turning a profit, because it has always seemed difficult to monetize this.

No they're telling him if he wants their advertising dollars to clean the hate rhetoric. He can't have it both ways. Never paid any attention to him TBH in the past but since he's taken over twitter, I do have an impression of him, and it isn't good.

Lol.

Yes, every time you refuse to give Democrats money because you don't like their platform, it's blackmail.

Every time I refuse to pay Xbox for Game Pass because the platform puts time restrictions on game access, it's blackmail.

I hope Elon files blackmail suits against these companies for not buying advertising from him. I really do.

You are getting real caught up on him using the word blackmail.

Call it leverage or persuasion, I don't care.

The company advertising is acting entitled in this situation imo. In this situation they are the customer. The company that wants to advertise on Xs platform.

When I'm a customer I don't make ultimatums with Target for example on how to run target before I buy a TV from them. Target wouldn't even bother listening to me anyway, either buy or not they don't care. X shouldn't treat these customers any differently, either buy ads or don't, but don't make requests about how the platform is ran. That's not thier roll and it doesn't matter how much they are willing to spend. Companys like Lions gate and Disney don't own X. Either pay to advertise or don't. The arrogance to expect X to change thier buisness specifically for thier advertising money is laughable.

I'm using the term because

1) it's what he used

2) it's a crime

If he's not describing it in those terms, then it's just a standard term of business negotiation, which is.... Fine. Common. Standard. All of the above.

lol earth to twitter:

Oh wow he came off as a huge angry baby lol. A petulant child. Hey Musk, how about don't make Antisemitic posts and let hate speech fester if you don't want people to stop advertising? This isn't on Bob Iger, this is on Musk. It's his idiotic actions that caused it. Not Iger's. He can only get wrong at himself.

Although I'm not surprised that the guy who has no clue what "Free Speech Absolutism" means also has no clue what "Blackmail" means. Definitions are hard for Elon I guess.

You think he is right about running X into the ground?

Vivek Ramaswamy mentioned the Great Replacement theory by name in the GOP presidential primary debate.

We have a lot of neo Nazis in this country, and their rhetoric has gone mainstream.

Has anyone actually called this X yet other than those little incel freaks who want him to be their new dad?