The Facts
X (formerly Twitter) filed an antitrust lawsuit in Texas federal court on Tuesday against the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and several other major companies, including Unilever, Mars, CVS Health, and Orsted.
The lawsuit accuses the companies of violating antitrust laws by orchestrating a "massive advertiser boycott," resulting the loss of billions of dollars of advertising revenue.
The Spin
Narrative A
The WFA and other companies engaged in an advertising boycott racket. This was a coordinated effort to demonetize and limit certain platforms, content creators, and news organizations. This conspiracy cost X billions of dollars in ad revenue and was an unfair anti-competitive tactic aimed at limiting certain viewpoints.
Narrative B
It will be very hard for X to prove that advertisers were engaged in a boycott. Even if X wins this case, companies cannot be forced to advertise on X, which isn't automatically guaranteed the money or business of advertisers. Besides, the truth is that advertisers left the platform due to Musk's gross mismanagement of the company.
