The US Federal Trade Commission has sought documents from media watchdog Media Matters in America about possible coordination with other media watchdogs accused by Elon Musk of helping orchestrate advertiser boycotts of X, according to a Reuters report.
The commission is seeking information about the outfit’s communication with other groups that assess misinformation and hate speech in news and social media, including a World Federation of Advertisers initiative called Global Alliance for Responsible Media. X has ongoing lawsuits against both organisations.
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, who was appointed by President Donald Trump to run the agency, had highlighted the potential for a probe in December.
In November last year, Elon Musk had sued the media watchdog days after several companies paused advertising on the social media platform over a report which alleged that a host of their ads were featuring alongside anti-semitic content. In its lawsuit lodged in Texas, X had alleged that Media Matters “manipulated” data and algorithms, and fabricated posts to drive away advertisers, and “destroy” the social media platform
Reacting to the lawsuit, Media Matters had said it was “meant to bully X’s critics”. The advocacy group had reported that corporate ads from IBM, Apple, Oracle and Comcast’s Xfinity were appearing alongside anti-semitic content. The report had come after Musk endorsed an X user’s post claiming that Jews were fuelling hostility towards the white people.
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