Elon Musk Says He’s Suing Media Matters Over Reports That Found X/Twitter Ads Ran Next to Pro-Nazi, White-Pride Posts

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor After a spate of major advertisers said they were halting spending on X over owner Elon Musk’s support of an antisemitic conspiracy theory, the tech mogul said he plans to file a “thermonuclear lawsuit” against a research group that had claimed to find ads on X/Twitter running against pro-Nazi and white nationalist posts.

On Friday, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Comcast/NBCUniversal, Lionsgate and Paramount Global they were pausing their ads on X, coming after IBM said it was halting ad spending a day earlier.

Apple also is suspending advertising spending on X, per an Axios report. Several of the X advertisers cited Musk’s endorsement earlier this week of a conspiracy theory that Jewish people “promote hatred against whites.” But in his late-night legal threat, Musk took aim at watchdog group Media Matters over what he alleged was manipulated research about advertising on the platform. “The split second court opens on Monday, X Corp will be filing a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and ALL those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company,” Musk posted on X late Friday night.

He added that the legal action will go after “Their board, their donors, their network of dark money, all of them …” According to a document posted by Musk, in order to “manipulate the public and advertisers,” Media Matters created an alternate account and curated the posts and advertising appearing on the account’s timeline to “misinform advertisers about the placement of their posts.