X Continues War on Advertisers by Adding Twitch to Boycott Lawsuit

X has added Twitch to its lawsuit against companies that declined to advertise with the social media platform over its lax content moderation.

“Twitch purchased no advertising from Twitter (or X) in the United States, and only a de minimis amount outside the United States, after November 2022,” X says in its amended complaint, as first reported by Reuters.

X declared “war” on advertisers in August by suing the World Federation of Advertisers and four of its members—consumer-products firm Unilever, candy conglomerate Mars, CVS Health, and wind-energy firm Ørsted—accusing them of violating US antitrust laws by taking their advertising business elsewhere. X reached a settlement with Unilever, but has now swapped in Twitch.

Amazon-owned Twitch did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

X alleges that the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM)—of which the named companies were members—spearheaded a boycott of X to pressure the company into moderating its platform. X says it responded by making sure that ads served on the platform would only show up near posts that aligned with the brands’ values, but problems persisted, resulting in major advertisers—including Apple, IBM, and Disney—pausing ad buys on X.

Musk’s response? He told fleeing advertisers to “go fuck yourself.”

According to X, “GARM celebrated—and took responsibility for—the massive economic harm imposed on Twitter by the boycott, boasting within just a few months of the start of the boycott that ‘they [Twitter] are 80% below revenue forecasts.'”

GARM, which was set up in 2019 to help brands keep their products from appearing next to offensive or illegal content, said that was a joke, but it closed up shop in the wake of the lawsuit, citing lack of funds.

We’ll have to see if a court can force companies to advertise with specific companies. In the meantime, it appears that some advertisers have returned to X.