The Federal Commerce Fee has demanded paperwork from Media Issues about doable coordination with different media watchdogs accused by Elon Musk of serving to orchestrate advertiser boycotts of X, based on a doc seen by Reuters on Thursday.
The civil investigative demand seen by Reuters seeks details about Media Issues’ communications with different teams that consider misinformation and hate speech in information and social media, together with a World Federation of Advertisers initiative referred to as International Alliance for Accountable Media. X has ongoing lawsuits towards each organizations.
The probe marks an escalation in US authorities scrutiny of whether or not teams like Media Issues helped advertisers coordinate to tug advert {dollars} from X after Musk purchased the social media web site previously generally known as Twitter in 2022.
The demand seeks all paperwork Media Issues, a Washington, DC-based liberal advocacy group, has produced or acquired within the X lawsuit associated to advertiser boycotts.
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, who was appointed by President Trump to run the company, highlighted the potential for a probe in December.
“We must prosecute any unlawful collusion between online platforms, and confront advertiser boycotts which threaten competition among those platforms,” Ferguson mentioned in an announcement on an unrelated case.
The Home Judiciary Committee, chaired by Republican member Jim Jordan, accused the International Alliance for Accountable Media final 12 months of coordinating an unlawful group boycott. The initiative was shut down in August.
A spokesperson for the FTC declined to remark.
Media Issues and the World Federation of Advertisers didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
An investigative demand just isn’t proof of wrongdoing, and never all investigations consequence within the FTC taking enforcement motion.
Promoting spending on X is set to extend in 2025 for the primary time since Musk purchased it in 2022, analysis agency Emarketer mentioned in March, however it stays beneath its pre-Musk degree. The Tesla CEO was a serious donor to Trump’s 2024 presidential marketing campaign and runs his initiative to slash the federal workforce.
Final 12 months, X sued the World Federation of Advertisers and a bunch of main manufacturers in federal courtroom in Texas, accusing them of illegally conspiring to curtail advert spending.
The group has requested a decide to dismiss the lawsuit, contending that advertisers selected different platforms based mostly on their considerations about X’s dedication to model security.
Media Issues and X are battling one another in federal courts in Texas and California.
X sued Media Issues in 2023, accusing the group of defaming it in an article that mentioned adverts for main manufacturers had appeared subsequent to posts on X that touted far-right extremist content material.
Media Issues has denied the allegations, and sued X, accusing it of abusive, expensive and meritless lawsuits to punish the group for its reporting on promoting on X after Musk bought the location.
The group has mentioned defending towards X’s claims has value it tens of millions of {dollars}.
