A federal court in Texas has ruled that X can move forward with its lawsuit against Media Matters. X claims that the watchdog group deliberately distorted how close major brand advertisements appeared to controversial content in a report it published, and accuses it of pressuring advertisers to leave X.
We obtained a copy of the order for you here.
Judge Reed O’Connor of the US District Court in Fort Worth declined to dismiss the case, acknowledging that X provided enough initial evidence to suggest that Media Matters might have “knowingly and maliciously fabricated” images that showed ads from big-name companies like Apple and Disney alongside neo-Nazi posts.
X insists that the scenario described in the report—where a particular ad was allegedly paired with hateful content and viewed by just one user—would never have occurred naturally, thanks to their sophisticated ad-filtering systems.
This alleged deception, according to X, significantly harmed the platform’s ad revenue as advertisers pulled back, wary of the controversy.
The legal battle gained attention shortly after Media Matters released a report in November, asserting that ads from major corporations were being displayed next to posts celebrating Adolf Hitler and extremist content.
Media Matters, a Washington, D.C.-based activist group, stands by its report, dismissing the lawsuit as baseless.
In an attempt to have the lawsuit thrown out, Media Matters argued that the Texas court lacked jurisdiction, pointing out that the report didn’t specifically focus on Texas or its residents. However, Judge O’Connor countered this by noting that the report referenced Texas-based companies like AT&T and Oracle, giving the court sufficient reason to assert jurisdiction.
