this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
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After a devastating advertiser exodus last week involving some of the world’s largest media companies, X owner Elon Musk is suing the progressive watchdog group Media Matters over its analysis highlighting antisemitic and pro-Nazi content on X — a report that appeared to play a significant role in the massive and highly damaging brand revolt.

The lawsuit filed Monday accuses Media Matters of distorting how likely it is for ads to appear beside extremist content on X, alleging that the group’s testing methodology was not representative of how real users experience the site.

“Media Matters knowingly and maliciously manufactured side-by-side images depicting advertisers’ posts on X Corp.’s social media platform beside Neo-Nazi and white-nationalist fringe content and then portrayed these manufactured images as if they were what typical X users experience on the platform,” the complaint filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas said. “Media Matters designed both these images and its resulting media strategy to drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp.”

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[–] TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee 104 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Ooooh. Discovery is gonna be goooooooood.

starts popping popcorn

[–] Pons_Aelius@kbin.social 65 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The threat of discovery was what forced him to have to buy twitter in the first place.

Fool me once...

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

Discovery giveth

Discovery taketh away

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[–] SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml 97 points 10 months ago (6 children)

Truth is an absolute defense in cases like these. They admitted to the facts of the case. The testing methodology is absolutely standard. There is no way Musk can prevail.

I just wonder if this will also fall under anti-SLAPP laws, since Musk is clearly doing it to shut down public disclosure and discussion.

[–] AmbroisindeMontaigu@kbin.social 33 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It would, so they chose a jurisdiction that's unrelated to any involved party but doesn't have those laws.

[–] protist@mander.xyz 19 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Texas does have anti-SLAPP laws:

The Texas Citizens Participation Act protects your rights by giving you:

Anti-SLAPP Motion to Dismiss: This motion asks the court to promptly end lawsuits that violate the Texas Citizens Participation Act.

Help paying for a lawyer: If you win your Anti-SLAPP Motion to Dismiss, the other side may have to pay your attorney's fees.

Protection: The court may impose sanctions on the other party to discourage them from filing a SLAPP lawsuit against others in the future.

Whether a judge in the northern district of Texas agrees to implement these remedies is less clear

[–] Evilcoleslaw@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Texas state law has it but this was filed in Federal court. There's no Federal anti-SLAPP.

[–] protist@mander.xyz 4 points 10 months ago

Ok got it, and since this was always going to be filed in Federal Court, the jurisdiction didn't particularly matter as far as anti-SLAPP laws are concerned

[–] SeedyOne@lemm.ee 16 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Exactly. This case likely will never make it past discovery given how much there is to lose.

[–] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 18 points 10 months ago

Yeah, he filed this to say he filed this, to cause a chilling effect on other orgs who report on the nazis he supports on his platform.

He will fold the very instant before discovery starts, because once email/texts/chats hit the lawyers, Twitter will be burning to the ground.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

I'd never heard of anti slapp laws before. That's cool. We have them where I'm at too!

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[–] stopthatgirl7@kbin.social 82 points 10 months ago (3 children)

So looks like they did some judge shopping first. They’re suing a company located in DC in a Texas court with a Trump-appointed judge: https://x.com/esqueer_/status/1726762933969895771?s=46&t=EUtgwMByNj4sQbVP9INV-Q

[–] AmbroisindeMontaigu@kbin.social 56 points 10 months ago (1 children)

When your "thermonuclear lawsuit" is so flimsy that you have to find a bully-friendly court first...

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago

The whole point of conservatives stacking the courts for decades has been to reach a point when they could win with the most flimsy, immoral, and unethical of reasoning (e.g. conservative logic).

[–] baldingpudenda@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago

East TX courts are the go to for Republicans and companies. They are notorious for handing favorable verdicts to them. Especially on things like this.

[–] AlecSadler@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

Ugh. That's bullshit. I still hope Elon / Twitter lose. Fuck that guy.

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 58 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] athos77@kbin.social 49 points 10 months ago

Ah yes, the ever-popular argument that "the problem isn't that we're a Nazi platform, the problem is that people are pointing out that we're a Nazi platform".

[–] Gingerlegs@lemmy.world 27 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Shouldn’t he be alarmed and thankful? Not suing? Hmm

[–] Granite@kbin.social 17 points 10 months ago

The call is coming from inside the empty Twitter offices.

[–] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 26 points 10 months ago

In before Elongate Muskrat calls Media Matters a pedophile.

[–] Twentytwodividedby7@lemmy.world 23 points 10 months ago (1 children)

X has gotten so bad...any comments section it seems is full of troll farm accounts for Republican fascist ideology. Lately there have been a bunch of memes about how J6 was just a left wing hoax to make Republicans look bad. It's insane, I watched J6 unfold in disbelief on like 3 live news channels- the fact that they are claiming this is just demonstrably false. Free speech is not protected if it is hate speech, or if it is libelous, and most pertinent - if it is posted on a private company's forum, so misinformation should be labeled as such or removed. Trump has proven a lack of critical thinking skills is another pandemic in this country and they cannot be allowed to return to power.

[–] thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”

In real time.... fucking a! George Orwell was something else.

[–] Twentytwodividedby7@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

I was just thinking about that line but couldn't remember it. Thanks for posting. It's insane

[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 21 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Can Xitter prove they didn’t serve those ads next to that content? If not I don’t see how they can win this.

[–] mateomaui@reddthat.com 30 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

Actually he released this statement admitting that it did happen, but wants us to think he’s been wronged because someone curated a feed then hit refresh a bunch of times, and only a couple of people saw it, so it doesn’t count.

And by this CNN report it sounds like he’s now misrepresenting their own findings.

[–] bonobi@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Exactly. He's not saying it didn't happen but rather it's not typical.

[–] mateomaui@reddthat.com 18 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

He’s apparently saying they “manufactured images” in the lawsuit which is a weird way of describing “refreshed until our system natively generated this.”

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[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 12 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah. That statement isn't doing him any good.

If 50 out of 5.5 billion were odds to win the mega jackpot lottery, sure. The chances seem insignificant and super low.

The problem is, 5.5 billion numbers are being rolled every day and 50 people out of a much smaller selection pool are going to win. So, if X has a total of 2000 advertisers that give a shit about ad placement, someone has a high chance of winning. Multiple times.

The actual odds are based off of the total number of advertisers and are only loosely based on total ad impressions. Here is what I mean: Every tweet, antisemitic or not, will be close to an ad and not all advertisers care where their ads land. If you find a Nazi, you will find an ad.

You can start doing the math about the actual distance a tweet is from an ad and stuff. Whatever.

This is the important bit: 50 out of 5.5 billion was just what Media Matters showcased and absolutely does not show the entire problem. It's much worse.

[–] mateomaui@reddthat.com 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I hope MM has a statistics expert to point this out in court.

[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's less about statistics and more about deception in my opinion. Numbers are almost always meaningless in papers that excessively use bold type and underlined words.

The function of the paper wasn't to prove anything. It was to get idiots focused on its false concept of freedom of speech. Even if my math assumptions are wrong, it doesn't matter and was never the point of the paper.

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[–] pennomi@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

“We think free speech is important unless that speech is being mean to us” is the biggest crybaby bullshit in the world.

[–] mateomaui@reddthat.com 9 points 10 months ago

That’s been his playbook since before buying Twitter.

[–] Backspacecentury@kbin.social 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Ok, but like, X corp? For real? Musk really leaning into the comic book villain shit he’s got going on lately.

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[–] Treczoks@lemm.ee 12 points 10 months ago

alleging that the group’s testing methodology was not representative of how real users experience the site.

Now all he has to proof is that somehow Media Matters has a vastly different view of X than anyone else. Good luck with that, Elon. ,-)

[–] aseriesoftubes@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago
[–] mateomaui@reddthat.com 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Good luck with that 🍿

[–] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 10 points 10 months ago

Elon the crybaby Nazi.

[–] DieguiTux8623@feddit.it 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Where I live, in my language/dialect we have a saying that goes like "the fifth article I call: who has got money always wins it all". As opposed to "the third article you have crossed: who hasn't got money has always lost".

[–] DieguiTux8623@feddit.it 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The numbering "fifth" and "third" is required by the rhymes in the original proverb.

[–] Tears_of_a_Saint@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Whats the original language and sayings?

[–] DieguiTux8623@feddit.it 7 points 10 months ago

Venetian dialect.

Articoło quinto: chi che g'à schei g'à senpre vinto. Articoło terso: chi che no g'à schei g'à senpre perso.

[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 5 points 10 months ago

"Compare me to fascist bigots, will they!?

I'll attack the reporting as slander, in a similar way the fascist bigots I'm being compared to do!"

[–] Pratai@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago

What a sad little coward.

[–] Illuminostro@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

"Wait a minute... are you seriously going to fuck with The Mouse?"

"Well... yes."

"You are a fucking idiot."

[–] OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago

Remember when Musk seemed like a quirky but well meaning dude who thought the car company he bought was going to save the world?

[–] Jaysyn@kbin.social 2 points 10 months ago (4 children)

You think Apple & Disney didn't verify this for themselves before ditching Twitter?

This dumb-ass is going to be proven to be a bigot in a US court of law, isn't he?

“Media Matters knowingly and maliciously manufactured side-by-side images depicting advertisers’ posts on X Corp.’s social media platform beside Neo-Nazi and white-nationalist fringe content and then portrayed these manufactured images as if they were what typical X users experience on the platform,” the complaint filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas said. “Media Matters designed both these images and its resulting media strategy to drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp.”

The counter-suit for this claim is going to be 🧑‍🍳💋

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