Elon Musk’s social media platform X is taking Mars and Unilever to court for no longer advertising on the former Twitter. In Germany too, several retailers are going after Musk.
“Systematic boycott”
X (formerly Twitter) accuses Mars, Unilever and several other companies of conspiring against the platform, allegedly in violation of US competition laws. The backdrop is the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), in which several major advertisers have joined forces from 2019.
Participating companies want to ensure that their ads cannot be seen alongside potentially inflammatory, racist or extremist content, and have therefore turned their backs on Twitter and, for a time, also Facebook. However, Musk has described the boycott as systematic and X is now demanding that the companies pay back the billions in lost advertising revenue.
The chances of X prevailing are slim, because even a political boycott is generally considered a matter of freedom of expression. What’s more, Musk’s companies are losing more and more supporters: 47 German organisations, including Aldi Nord and the online shop Otto, recently withdrew from X, accusing the platform of misinformation and incitement to hatred. Meanwhile, German drugstore chain Rossmann is banning Tesla from its company fleet (34 cars out of some 800) because of Musk’s numerous pro-Trump and anti-Woke statements.
