Elon Musk’s X is at the center of a legal dispute after Media Matters asked a U.S. court on Monday to block a Federal Trade Commission investigation into alleged coordination of advertiser boycotts.
The liberal watchdog group said the probe is retaliation for its reporting on the platform and its owner.
The FTC had ordered Media Matters to provide communications with other groups that track hate speech and misinformation, as well as documents related to lawsuits in which X accused such groups of influencing advertisers to leave the platform.
Media Matters denied organizing any boycott and said the agency’s demands have limited its ability to report on both Musk and the FTC. The group filed a lawsuit asking the court to stop the investigation, as it did in similar cases brought by officials in Texas and Missouri.
In 2023, X sued Media Matters, claiming it defamed the platform by publishing a report that showed ads from major companies appearing next to extremist content. Media Matters denied the allegations and later sued X, accusing the company of using costly lawsuits to target its reporting.
The group reported that ads from IBM, Apple, Oracle, and Comcast’s Xfinity were placed next to posts promoting Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. In its latest complaint, Media Matters said X had launched a legal campaign across three countries, all tied to its use of the platform and its reporting under X’s own terms of service.
