'Now it is war': Elon Musk and X sue advertisers over illegal boycott that allegedly cost the company billions



X CEO Linda Yaccarino announced a lawsuit against advertisers after a House Judiciary Committee report revealed an illegal boycott against the company.

The report, titled "GARM's (Global Alliance for Responsible Media) Harm," detailed the work of the World Federation of Advertisers, which controls GARM and represents some of the world's largest companies and advertisers.

According to a report by the New York Post, the WFA controls 90% of global marketing spending, which amounts to $1 trillion per year and includes companies like Disney and Coca-Cola.

'The illegal behavior of these organizations and their executives cost X billions of dollars.'

In a post made directly on X, Yaccarino remarked, "I thought I had seen everything."

"The report disclosed that their investigation had found evidence of an illegal boycott against many companies, including X," the CEO continued.

Yaccarino then announced an antitrust lawsuit against GARM, the WFA, and GARM members CVS Health, Mars, Orsted, and Unilever.

"This is not a decision we took lightly, but it is a direct consequence of their actions," she added.

X owner Elon Musk shared Yaccarino's X post and simply added, "We tried peace for 2 years, now it is war."

— (@)

Yaccarino boasted of X's growing numbers, noting that despite being an effective platform for advertisers and even surpassing requests made by GARM itself, the company still lost billions.

"The illegal behavior of these organizations and their executives cost X billions of dollars."

The CEO pointed out that the House committee obtained evidence that showed "GARM and its members directly organized boycotts and used other indirect tactics to target disfavored platforms, content creators, and news organizations in an effort to demonetize and, in effect, limit certain choices for consumers.'"

BlazeTV's James Poulos said that conflict between Musk and X's advertisers has been escalating for years, and now the reason for that has finally become clear.

"Rather than mild-mannered normies afraid of controversial content on X, advertisers operate as a cartel of far-left propagandists, reaping profits from taxpayers on government contracts while conspiring to silence free speech at odds with their radical ideologies."

Poulos added that the "ugly truth" about the matter is that "corporate cartels" have been revealed to have a stranglehold on online discourse and national politics.

"No group, whatever its beliefs, should wield such control over the bounds of our words and thoughts on the most fundamental issues. Fortunately, antitrust law offers a powerful tool to help protect us from that kind of silent digital coup against our constitutionally guaranteed rights and form of government," he concluded.

The House report also reportedly obtained internal emails from the advertising alliance that showed its head, Robert Rakowitz, allegedly bragging that X was "80% below revenue forecasts" since the company was targeted.

Rakowitz later claimed the email was a "self-effacing joke."

CVS Health, Orsted, Mars, and Unilever have not released public statements on the matter and did not respond to requests for comment from the New York Post or Fox News.

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X Sues Global Advertising Giants For Coordinating ‘Illegal’ Boycott Designed To Punish Free Speech

[rebelmouse-proxy-image https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-12.32.15 PM-e1722965558306-1200x675.png crop_info="%7B%22image%22%3A%20%22https%3A//thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-12.32.15%5Cu202fPM-e1722965558306-1200x675.png%22%7D" expand=1]The suit follows a congressional report alleging GARM violated antitrust laws by trying to demonetize anyone it deemed guilty of wrongthink.

WATCH: Elon Musk explains why journalists hate the X platform now



Elon Musk has become an enemy of the left for rejecting the government’s censorship agenda by prioritizing free speech on the X platform.

Now, Musk has made even more enemies for his “democratization” of X.

In an interview with Linda Yaccarino, Musk explained to the X CEO why journalists specifically are furious about his reformed blue check-mark policy.

Watch Host's Face as Elon Musk Exposes This Group's Real Motivationsyoutu.be

Under the former Twitter regime, a blue check mark signified the user’s authenticity and notability — a false honorary badge reserved for “verified identities.” Now, under Musk’s ownership, a blue check mark simply means “the account has an active subscription to X Premium and meets [X’s] eligibility requirements.”

“It’s the same for everyone,” Musk told Yaccarino, but “the thing that a lot of traditional journalists don't like is they don't like being put on the same platform as the average citizen. They don't like their voice being the same.”

“Yes, there are several news organizations who don't like your push for democratization and what they believe is the devaluing of the badges [check marks] because they were differentiated,” Yaccarino confirmed.

“I think it’s very important to elevate citizen journalism. I think it’s very important to hear the voice of the people — the actual voice of the people, not the filtered voice of the people. Let the people choose the narrative, and let the people determine the truth and not five editor in chiefs of major publications,” Musk responded.

Dave Rubin calls Musk’s democratization of X “[shifting] where the megaphone is.”

He explains that in an ideal world, we could rely on “a group of journalists” who could “make sense of the world,” allowing the average citizen to “vote appropriately” and “have a sense of what is happening in the world.”

But true journalism seems to be a thing of the past. We can’t trust journalists to report the facts anymore.

“Unfortunately, the journalist layer — the media layer — they do not deserve [our] trust anymore,” says Dave. That’s why Musk “democratized” the X platform.

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CEO of X reveals MAJOR changes Elon Musk is about to unleash



As many know, Twitter has been renamed X, but that’s not the only thing Elon Musk intends to change about the social media platform.

X CEO Linda Yaccarino says that Musk has had rebranding plans for a long time now to “transform Twitter into X — the everything app,” a “global town square that is fueled by free expression, where the public gathers in real time.”

"'In real time' is what's most important about the vibrancy of X and how people interact with it," Yaccarino says, adding that since Musk acquired the platform, X has transformed "experiences and evolution into long-form video and articles" where people can "subscribe to [their] favorite creators who are now earning a real living on the platform."

“Soon you'll be able to make video chat calls without having to give your phone number to anyone on the platform” and potentially make payments to friends and other creators.

“The rebrand represented really a liberation from Twitter, a liberation that allowed us to evolve past a legacy mindset and a thinking and to reimagine how everyone on Spaces who's listening, everybody who's watching. Around the world, it's going to change how we congregate, how we entertain, how we transact all in one place,” she continues.


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We Should Stop Believing Elon Musk Is Committed To Free Speech At Twitter

Despite Elon Musk's promises, Twitter is still censoring people.

Elon Musk taps Linda Yaccarino as Twitter CEO: 'I think people from both sides of the political spectrum will find Linda to be smart, fair and reasonable'



Elon Musk, who announced on Thursday that he had hired someone to begin serving as Twitter CEO in around six weeks, revealed on Friday that Linda Yaccarino is individual he picked for the job.

"I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter! @LindaYacc will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology. Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app," Musk tweeted on Friday. "I think people from both sides of the political spectrum will find Linda to be smart, fair and reasonable," he noted in another tweet.

\u201cI am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!\n\n@LindaYacc will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology.\n\nLooking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app.\u201d
— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1683906564

Yaccarino had been working as NBCUniversal chairman of global advertising and partnerships, but the company announced on Friday that she was departing effective immediatlely.

According to her LinkedIn page, Yaccarino has ties to the World Economic Forum, and she helped promote COVID-19 vaccination when she served as chair of the Ad Council board of directors.

The LinkedIn profile also describes her as a "Global Leader."

"Yaccarino is the Chairman of the WEF's Taskforce on Future of Work and sits on the WEF's Media, Entertainment and Culture Industry Governors Steering Committee. She is also highly engaged with the Value in Media initiative," her LinkedIn profile states. "As 2021-2022 Ad Council Chair, Yaccarino partnered with the business community, the White House, and government agencies to create a COVID-19 vaccination campaign, featuring Pope Francis and reaching over 200 million Americans."

Some people have voiced concerns about Musk's decision to enlist Yaccarino as the company's CEO.

"We're all getting banned again," Jackson Hinkle tweeted.

Retweeting Hinkle, Luke Rudkowski wrote, "and here come the shadow bans....again....."

But Musk pushed back, tweeting, "That will not be the case."

\u201c@Lukewearechange That will not be the case\u201d
— Luke Rudkowski (@Luke Rudkowski) 1683863648

Someone laid out mulitple concerns about Yaccarino before concluding that "she'll bring in advertising revenue in the short term, but she's a long-term mistake."

"I hear your concerns, but don’t judge too early. I am adamant about defending free speech, even if it means losing money," Musk replied.

\u201c@BillboardChris @lindayacc I hear your concerns, but don\u2019t judge too early. I am adamant about defending free speech, even if it means losing money.\u201d
— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1683906564

Musk announced that he plans to host a Twitter spaces chat with Yaccarino where people can ask them questions. "As soon as @LindaYacc is ready, we will do a Spaces where you can ask us anything," he tweeted.

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NBCUniversal advertising figure Linda Yaccarino reportedly in talks about serving as Twitter CEO



NBCUniversal chairman of Global Advertising and Partnerships Linda Yaccarino is in discussions to serve as Twitter's CEO, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed people. The New York Times, citing two unnamed people, has reported that Elon Musk is in discussions to hire the woman for the role.

Elon Musk announced on Thursday that he has hired someone to serve as CEO of the social media platform and that she will begin the job in around six weeks, though he did not divulge the woman's identity.

"Excited to announce that I've hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks! My role will transition to being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software & sysops," Musk tweeted. "The commitment to open source transparency and accepting a wide range of viewpoints remains unchanged," Musk also tweeted on Thursday.

\u201c@alx The commitment to open source transparency and accepting a wide range of viewpoints remains unchanged\u201d
— ALX \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@ALX \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1683854679

Yaccarino's LinkedIn profile indicates that she has ties to the World Economic Forum.

"Yaccarino is the Chairman of the WEF's Taskforce on Future of Work and sits on the WEF's Media, Entertainment and Culture Industry Governors Steering Committee. She is also highly engaged with the Value in Media initiative," the LinkedIn page states.

She is the immediate past chair of the Ad Council board of directors. While serving as chair, she helped promote COVID-19 vaccination.

"As 2021-2022 Ad Council Chair, Yaccarino partnered with the business community, the White House, and government agencies to create a COVID-19 vaccination campaign, featuring Pope Francis and reaching over 200 million Americans," according to her LinkedIn profile, which also describes her a "Global Leader."

In December, Musk ran a Twitter poll asking whether he should step down from the helm of the company. More than half of the votes called for Musk to step down. "I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams," he tweeted.

\u201cI will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams.\u201d
— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1671405633

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