Extreme Left-Wing Media Matters To Face X Lawsuit

A federal judge in Texas has refused to dismiss a lawsuit by Elon Musk’s social media company X accusing watchdog Media Matters of disparaging the platform in a report that said the site had placed ads for major brands next to extremist content.

In a Thursday decision, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth said X could pursue claims that Media Matters “knowingly and maliciously fabricated side-by-side images” of major advertisers next to neo-Nazi content, driving some companies to stop or pause their spend on the site.

O'Connor rejected Media Matter's arguments for dismissal, including that it can’t be liable for business disparagement by reporting truthful statements. O'Connor said X had sufficiently alleged that Media Matters had acted with “actual malice” based on statements criticizing the platform.

Nor did Washington, D.C.-based Media Matters, a liberal advocacy group, which has called the lawsuit meritless and defended what it said was an “accurate report on the platform’s extremism.”

Ad revenue on X, formerly Twitter, fell after Musk purchased the site in 2022 for $44 billion. Musk’s X soon faced scrutiny over lax content moderation, as the site reinstated once-suspended accounts and brands grew concerned over their ads appearing next to inappropriate content.

The Media Matters report at the center of X’s lawsuit was published online in November. The organization said it found advertisements by IBM, Apple, Oracle and Comcast's Xfinity placed alongside posts touting Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party.

X sued Media Matters in November in federal court in Fort Worth, which has become a favorite destination for conservatives seeking to block Democratic-backed policies. The lawsuit alleged the Media Matters report was published “with the intention of harming X and its business.”