It’s hard to deny that X is a very different social media experience than it was during its sunset era as Twitter. Whether it’s the mass amounts of false information and fake news shared on the platform, the rise of bots and fake accounts, or even simply the changes that have been made that have reduced the social part of the platform like removing visible Like information.
Needless to say, many of the changes that have been imposed ever since Elon Musk took over the platform have rubbed users and clearly companies the wrong way too, which is likely a reason why many have decided against spending advertising and marketing money on the platform. X however has another reason for this change: an organised boycott against it.
This was confirmed in a message by CEO Linda Yaccarino, who states, “the evidence and facts are on our side, they conspire to boycott X, which threatens our ability to thrive in the future.”
This was shared as part of a message that reveals that X is taking legal action against companies that don’t want to spend marketing funds on X, with Yaccarino adding, “no small group of people should be able to monopolise what gets monetised.”
As the message is frankly very broad in scope, the folk over at Axios has affirmed that the lawsuit in particular is targeted at an advertising industry coalition that includes major corporations such as CVS Health, Mars, Orsted, and Unilever, and known as Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM). This also goes a little bit further and is about what the Republican party in the US regard as a “shadowy corporate coordination” that is aiming to silence conservatives, something that was mentioned in a recent report shared in the House Judiciary Committee.
It’s unclear how far this lawsuit will go, if its goes anywhere, as the case may be thrown out of court or instead be litigated further.