Elon Musk’s social media platform X is taking Mars and Unilever to court because they are no longer advertising on the former Twitter. In Germany too, several retailers are distancing themselves from Musk.
“Systematic boycott”
The ex-Twitter accuses Mars, Unilever and several other companies of conspiring against the platform, allegedly in violation of American competition laws. The cause for grief is the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), in which several major advertisers have joined forces from 2019.
Participating companies want to ensure that their ads cannot be seen alongside potentially inflammatory, racist or extremist content, and have therefore turned their backs on Twitter and, for a time, also Facebook. Being no stranger to these kinds of content, Musk has described the boycott as systematic and is now demanding that the companies pay the billions in “lost” advertising revenue. It is generally thought that the chances of Musk prevailing are slim, because even a political boycott is generally considered a matter of freedom of expression in the United States.
On the other side of the Atlantic, 47 German organisations (including Aldi Nord and the online shop Otto) recently also withdrew from ex-Twitter, accusing the platform of misinformation and incitement to hatred. German drugstore chain Rossmann is even completely removing Tesla from its company fleet, because of Musk’s increasingly inflammatory statements.
