WICHITA FALLS, Texas (AP) — Elon Musk's social media platform X has sued a group of advertisers, alleging that a “massive advertiser boycott” deprived the company of billions of dollars in revenue and violated antitrust laws.
The company formerly known as Twitter filed the lawsuit Tuesday in a federal court in Texas against the World Federation of Advertisers and member companies Unilever, Mars, CVS Health and Orsted.
It accused the advertising group's brand safety initiative, called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, of helping to coordinate a pause in advertising after Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022 and overhauled its staff and policies.
Musk posted about the lawsuit on X on Tuesday, saying “now it is war” after two years of being nice and “getting nothing but empty words.”
X CEO Linda Yaccarino said in a video announcement that the lawsuit stemmed in part from evidence uncovered by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee which she said showed a “group of companies organized a systematic illegal boycott” against X.
The Republican-led committee had a hearing last month looking at whether current laws are “sufficient to deter anticompetitive collusion in online advertising.”
The lawsuit’s allegations center on the early days of Musk’s Twitter takeover and not a more recent dispute with advertisers that came a year later.
In November 2023, about a year after Musk bought the company, a number of advertisers began fleeing X over concerns about their ads showing up next to pro-Nazi content and hate speech on the site in general, with Musk inflaming tensions with his own posts endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory.
Musk later said those fleeing advertisers were engaging in “blackmail” and, using a profanity, essentially told them to go away.
The Belgium-based World Federation of Advertisers and representatives for CVS, Orsted, Mars and Unilever didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
A top Unilever executive testified at last month's congressional hearing, defending the British consumer goods company's practice of choosing to put ads on platforms that won't harm its brand.
“Unilever, and Unilever alone, controls our advertising spending,” said prepared written remarks by Herrish Patel, president of Unilever USA. “No platform has a right to our advertising dollar.”
FILE - Elon Musk arrives before a joint meeting of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, July 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Mike Johnson vowed Tuesday to press ahead with requiring proof of citizenship for new voters as part of a bill to avoid a partial government shutdown in three weeks, though the measure appeared likely to be voted down.
Democrats overwhelmingly oppose the measure. Enough Republicans were also coming out against the bill, though for different reasons, that its prospects of passing the House appeared dim. Even if it does pass the House on Wednesday, the bill would go nowhere in the Senate.
Johnson said the issue of election security is too critical to ignore, though research has shown that voting by non-citizens is extremely rare. It's also clear that Republicans see value in making House Democrats take another vote on the issue. The House approved a bill with the proof of citizenship mandate back in July
“If you have a few thousand illegals participate in the election in the wrong place, you can change the makeup of Congress and you can affect the presidential election,” Johnson said. “The American people understand that."
The first test for the stopgap spending bill came Tuesday with a 209-206 vote that kept it moving ahead. But some Republicans who have said they will oppose the bill on final passage allowed it to proceed.
The measure includes a six-month extension of federal funding to keep agencies and programs operating through March 28.
But Democrats want a shorter-term extension so that the current Congress will set full-year spending levels for fiscal year 2025 rather than the next president and Congress. They also want the proof of citizenship mandate stripped out of the bill, saying it's unnecessary because states already have effective safeguards in place to verify voters' eligibility and maintain accurate voter rolls.
“Is it any surprise that the speaker's purely partisan CR seems to be running into trouble?” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, using Washington parlance for the short-term continuing resolution needed to prevent a shutdown. “The answer is very simple. The House should stop wasting time on a CR proposal that cannot become law.”
Schumer called on Johnson to consult with Democratic leaders and the White House on a bipartisan package that can pass both chambers.
A few House Republicans have also come out against the bill. Some won't vote for any continuing resolution. They want Congress to return to passing the dozen annual appropriations bills individually. Others say the continuing resolution funds programs at levels they consider inappropriate at a time of nearly $2 trillion annual deficits.
“I’m a firm no on bankrupting the nation and a yes on election integrity,” said Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., in announcing his opposition.
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., said Republican leadership was asking him to vote for what he called “a Nancy Pelosi-Schumer budget.”
“I just think that's a bad idea,” Burchett said.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said on X that the continuing resolution was “an insult to Americans’ intelligence.”
"The CR doesn’t cut spending, and the shiny object attached to it will be dropped like a hot potato before passage," Massie said.
Republicans can afford to lose only four votes from their ranks if every Democrat votes against the bill.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Tuesday seemingly encouraged a government shutdown if Republicans in the House and Senate “don't get assurances on Election Security.” He said on the social media platform Truth Social that they should not go forward with a continuing resolution without such assurances.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell disagreed when asked about Trump's post.
“Shutting down the government is always a bad idea, no matter what time of the year it is,” McConnell said.
House Republicans met behind closed doors Tuesday morning to discuss the path forward. Rep. Jim Jordan, a co-founder of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told colleagues “this is the best fight we've ever had," said Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla.
By holding another vote on the proof of citizenship requirement for voter registration, House Republicans are making Democrats in competitive swing districts take another vote on the issue ahead of the election. Last time, five Democrats sided with Republicans in support of the requirement. And their votes this time will be highly scrutinized.
Lawmakers said no plan B was discussed for government funding and that Johnson was determined to hold a vote regardless of the likely outcome.
“This is important to him," said Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C. "This is the hill to die on.”
As lawmakers debated the short-term spending measure on the House floor, the focus was almost entirely on the proof of citizenship mandate, also referred to as the SAVE Act. Republicans linked a surge in migrants during the Biden administration with the prospect that some could vote in future elections.
“What are you afraid of to require someone to prove who they say that they are?" said Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y.
Democrats countered that the proof of citizenship requirement would disenfranchise many Americans who don’t have the required documents readily available when they get an opportunity to register to vote.
“Let me be clear, the SAVE Act is not about targeting undocumented immigrants, it's about suppressing the vote of millions of American citizens,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., talks to reporters as he arrives at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
