X advertisers from Nestle to Shell deny Musk's boycott claims

Nestle SA, Shell PLC, Abbott Laboratories and a handful of other companies say they did not coordinate an advertising boycott of Elon Musk’s X after purchasing the social media platform of the billionaire, and refut claims made in a lawsuit. Business Attorneys asked a federal judge in Texas to reject the case of X who accused them of participating in an illegal boycott that allegedly cost the platform billions of dollars. They argue that they all respond independently to changes implemented by Musk, which allowed unmarked anti -Semitic content and other toxic comments on X. “X Corporation’s Suit, is an attempt to use the Rechts Building to win the Business X who lost its own business in the free market,” Court file. The advertisement of X suffered after the takeover of the $ 44 billion platform from the platform previously known as Twitter three years ago and its decision to eliminate rules and policies regarding content in the name of promoting free speech. In August, X sued the world federation of advertisers over the mass exodus and later added several individual businesses as defendants. These companies include CVS Health Corp., Mars Inc., Lego A/S, Pinterest Inc., Orsted A/S, Colgate-Palmolive Co. and Tyson Foods Inc. advocates for the businesses said some chose to pick up their ads from the platform, others prefer to scale the backup. They also argued that none of these decisions violated antitrust laws. “Antitrust law does not require advertisers to continue doing business with a platform that humiliates the quality of its service,” they said. “It also does not suppose an illegal conspiracy when advertisers make rational, independent business decisions.” Advertising on X now makes a comeback – partly because advertisers respond to Musk’s power in the White House as an important adviser to President Donald Trump. The social network is expected to report its first year of growth in advertising revenue since Musk acquired it in 2022, according to a March report from the research firm Emarketer. According to the report, X is expected to generate $ 1.31 billion in US advertising sales in 2025, an increase of 17.5%. The case is x v. World Federation of Advertisers, 7: 24-CV -00114, US District Court, Northern District Texas. © 2025 Bloomberg MP This article was generated from an automatic news agency feed without edits to text.