FTC Investigates Media Matters Over Elon Musk’s X Boycott Claims | EUROtoday

(Reuters) — The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has demanded paperwork from Media Matters about doable coordination with different media watchdogs accused by Elon Musk of serving to orchestrate advertiser boycotts of X, in keeping with a doc seen by Reuters on Thursday.

The civil investigative demand seen by Reuters seeks details about Media Matters’ communications with different teams that consider misinformation and hate speech in information and social mediatogether with a World Federation of Advertisers initiative known as Global Alliance for Responsible Media. X has ongoing lawsuits towards each organizations.

The probe marks an escalation in U.S. authorities scrutiny of whether or not teams like Media Matters helped advertisers coordinate to drag advert {dollars} from X after Musk purchased the social media web site previously generally known as Twitter in 2022.

The demand seeks all paperwork Media Mattersa Washington, D.C.-based liberal advocacy group, has produced or acquired within the X lawsuit associated to advertiser boycotts.

FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, who was appointed by President Donald Trump to run the company, highlighted the potential for a probe in December.

“We must prosecute any unlawful collusion between online platforms, and confront advertiser boycotts which threaten competition among those platforms,” Ferguson stated in an announcement on an unrelated case.

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Republican member Jim Jordan, accused the Global Alliance for Responsible Media final yr of coordinating an unlawful group boycott. The initiative was shut down in August.

A spokesperson for the FTC declined to remark.

Media Matters and the World Federation of Advertisers didn’t immediately reply to a request for remark.

An investigative demand is just not proof of wrongdoing, and never all investigations end result within the FTC taking enforcement motion.

Advertising spending on X is ready to extend in 2025 for the primary time since Musk purchased it in 2022, analysis agency Emarketer stated in March, nevertheless it stays beneath its pre-Musk stage. The Tesla CEO was a significant donor to Trump’s 2024 presidential marketing campaign and runs his initiative to slash the federal workforce.

Last yr, X sued the World Federation of Advertisers and a gaggle of main manufacturers in federal court docket in Texas, accusing them of illegally conspiring to curtail advert spending.

The group has requested a decide to dismiss the lawsuit, contending that advertisers selected different platforms based mostly on their issues about X’s dedication to model security.

Media Matters and X are battling one another in federal courts in Texas and California.

X sued Media Matters in 2023, accusing the group of defaming it in an article that stated advertisements for main manufacturers had appeared subsequent to posts on X that touted far-right extremist content material.

Media Matters has denied the allegations, and sued X, accusing it of abusive, pricey and meritless lawsuits to punish the group for its reporting on promoting on X after Musk bought the positioning.

The group has stated defending towards X’s claims has price it tens of millions of {dollars}.

(Reporting by Mike Scarcella in Washington and Jody Godoy in New York; Editing by Chris Sanders and Matthew Lewis)