Back in August 2024, I reported (story #4) that Elon Musk's X was suing The World Federation of Advertisers, Mars, CVS, Unilever, and Orsted for allegedly colluding to boycott its social media platform. The World Federation of Advertisers launched its Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) in 2019 to safeguard digital media by reducing the availability and monetization of harmful content online.
All this, coming just months after Elon Musk told advertisers to “Go fuck yourself” at a New York Times DealBook Summit in November.
Regardless of the merits of the lawsuit, the potential threat of litigation was too much for GARM to bear the cost of, and the organization was forced to discontinue its activities.
Since then, X added Twitch in to its roster of companies being sued and settled with Unilever, dropping them from the suit.
Flash forward to 2025… X is now suing more advertisers in its antitrust lawsuit focusing on what its CEO Linda Yaccarino has claimed is a “systematic illegal boycott.”
Nestlé, Abbott Laboratories, Colgate, Lego, Pinterest, Tyson Foods, and Shell have all been added to Musk's hitlist the lawsuit.
The complaint alleges that these companies illegally conspired to “collectively withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue” from X.
“As a result of the boycott, X became a less effective competitor to other social media platforms in the sale of digital advertising and in competing for user engagement on its platform,” the complaint reads.
Companies not being sued? Amazon!
In fact, Amazon is boosting its advertising spend on X after Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk buddied up at Trump's inauguration. To announce the new partnership, Musk posted on X a GIF from the movie Step Brothers with the movie's famous quote, “Did we just become best friends?”
In 2023, Amazon withdrew all its spending on the app, but now people close to the situation expect that to change, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has been involved in the move in recent weeks as the company tries out ads.