(MENAFN) Elon Musk's social media company, X, has filed a lawsuit against liberal advocacy group Media Matters for America, accusing it of manufacturing a report to deliberately showcase advertisers' posts alongside neo-Nazi and white nationalist content on the platform. X alleges that Media Matters aimed to "drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp." The lawsuit comes in response to a report from Media Matters that highlighted concerns about ads appearing next to pro-Nazi content on X, prompting advertisers such as IBM, NBCUniversal, Comcast, Apple, Oracle, Amazon, NBA Mexico, and others to halt advertising on the platform.
In its complaint filed in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, X contends that Media Matters "knowingly and maliciously" portrayed ads next to hateful material, creating a false perception of the typical user experience on the platform. X accuses Media Matters of manipulating algorithms on the platform to generate images of advertisers' paid posts adjacent to racist and incendiary content. The lawsuit asserts that these juxtapositions were "manufactured, inorganic, and extraordinarily rare."
According to X, Media Matters achieved this manipulation by using X accounts that followed users known for producing "extreme fringe content" and accounts owned by major X advertisers. This strategic approach aimed to create a feed specifically designed to generate side-by-side placements that Media Matters could then capture in screenshots, with the intention of alienating X's advertisers.
Media Matters dismissed the lawsuit as "frivolous," maintaining that its report was based on genuine instances of ads being placed alongside objectionable content on the platform. The legal battle between X and Media Matters reflects the broader challenges faced by social media platforms in managing content moderation and addressing concerns about ad placements next to inappropriate or offensive material.
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