Elon Musk's X sues beauty giant Unilever over advertising boycott: 'It's war'

Elon Musk's social media platform X sued some of the world's largest advertisers, including beauty giant Unilever on Tuesday. 

The lawsuit alleges that the companies have unlawfully conspired to boycott the platform, formerly known as Twitter, and purposefully deprived X of billions of dollars in revenue. 

Unilever, the maker of Dove and Paula's Choice, is among the firms facing the lawsuit in Texas along with Mars, CVS Health and Orsted.

Musk tweeted on Tuesday: "We tried being nice for two years and got nothing but empty words. Now, it's war." 

X said that the group of advertisers,  via a World Federation of Advertisers initiative called Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), acted in a conspiracy against the platform that violated US antitrust law.

X's CEO Linda Yaccarino also shared an open letter to advertisers. "The consequence - perhaps the intent - of this boycott was to seek to deprive X’s users, be they sports fans, gamers, journalists, activists, parents or political and corporate leaders, of the Global Town Square," she said. 

"To put it simply, people are hurt when the marketplace of ideas is undermined and some viewpoints are not funded over others as part of an illegal boycott. 

"This behaviour is a stain on a great industry, and cannot be allowed to continue."

Yaccarino described the decision to sue Unilever and others was not taken lightly, "but it is a direct consequence of their actions". 

The lawsuit comes after a report published by the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee last month.

Yaccarino said this report highlighted how “GARM and its members directly organised boycotts and used other indirect tactics to target disfavoured platforms”. 

Musk acquired X in 2022 for US$44bn and has attempted to transform the social media platform into haven for free speech. 

Critics argue that X has led to widespride disinformation on the website and has deterred advertisers.  

Musk has previously accused advertisers of trying to "blackmail" him and said at a New York Times conference that companies which joined a growing advertising boycott against X could “go f*** yourself". 

Image: Wiki Commons / Ministério Das Comunicações