“Bose to boycott and destroy”: Comment on a lawsuit filed by X, Check My Ads, and Rumble

Linda Yaccarino said in the video that she was shocked by the evidence that there had been a systematic illegal boycott against X. She pointed directly at the camera and said that the advertisers were threatening the global town square.

A separate post from Musk encourages any company who has been boycotted by advertisers to file a lawsuit as he believes there could be criminal liability under the RICO Act.

Techdirt pointed out that the ability to decide where to advertise is protected under the First Amendment, which may make it hard for X’s lawsuit to succeed in court. The ad tech watchdog group Check My Ads similarly states that advertisers have the right “to not send money to a platform that promotes hate and conspiracies.”

The right-wing video site Rumble, founded more than 10 years ago as an alternative to YouTube and positioned as a platform “immune to cancel culture,” announced on Tuesday that it had filed a similar lawsuit. The company posted on its X account that it was a conspiracy to boycott Rumble and other companies.

In the past advertisers had to individually strike deals with social media companies to set limits around what kind of content they would sponsor, according to X’s lawsuit. Through GARM, advertisers have been able to limit their power and regulate their content. In X’s view, GARM now has too much say over the content social media platforms may allow.

Advertisers decide which platforms to advertise on in a competitive market because each social media platform sets brand safety standards that are optimal for that platform and for its users. “But collective action among competing advertisers to dictate brand safety standards to be applied by social media platforms shortcuts the competitive process and allows the collective views of a group of advertisers with market power to override the interests of consumers.”