Elon Musk Warns Of 'Civil & Criminal' Consequences For Fraud As Texas AG Opens Investigation Into Media Matters

On the same day, Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) filed a lawsuit against Media Matters, accusing the media watchdog group of defaming the platform, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has opened an investigation into the organization over “potential fraudulent activity.” 

What Happened: On Monday, Musk took to X and shared the release by Paxton’s office, saying, “Fraud has both civil & criminal penalties.” 

As per the release, the Texas attorney general was “extremely troubled” by the allegations Media Matters, an “anti-free speech organization,” manipulated data on X.com fraudulently. 

See Also: Advertisers Privately Urging X CEO Linda Yaccarino To Resign Amid Elon Musk’s Endorsement Of Anti-Semitic Post: Report

“Under the Texas Business Organizations Code and the Deceptive Trade Practices Act, the OAG will vigorously enforce against nonprofits who commit fraudulent acts in or affecting the state of Texas,” the release stated. 

For the uninitiated, on Friday, Media Matters published a report accusing X of placing ads of prominent brands like AppleIBMXfinity (Comcast), and Oracle next to “content that touts Hitler and his Nazi Party.”

In response, Musk and X CEO Linda Yaccarino have vehemently opposed the accusations, although not everyone on the internet was satisfied with their statements.  

On the other hand, many people have also spoken in favor of Musk and against Media Matters. One such person was Chris Pavlovski, the founder and CEO of Rumble, a 2013 startup that aimed to become an alternative to YouTube for independent content creators.  

Pavlovski also accused Media Matters of “purposely” misrepresenting Rumble. 

Why It’s Important: In September earlier this year, X CEO revealed that 90% of the top 100 advertisers were back on the platform while expressing her optimism about achieving profitability by 2024. 

However, another report dismissed these claims, indicating that most of the world’s biggest advertisers have ceased spending on X.

Moreover, last month, it was reported that the value of X, purchased for a staggering $44 billion last year in October, has declined to less than half of its purchase price. The reason possibly being chaotic leadership and advertisers concerns about content-safety on the microblogging site. 

Image Via Shutterstock

Check out more of Benzinga’s Consumer Tech coverage by following this link.

Read Next: Elon Musk’ Very Worried’ About OpenAI Boardroom Battle; Ilya Sutskever ‘Wouldn’t Take Such Drastic Action Unless.. Absolutely Necessary’

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
Comments
Loading...
Posted In: NewsSocial MediaTechConsumer TechElon MuskKen PaxtonlawsuitMedia MattersSoftware & AppsX
Benzinga simplifies the market for smarter investing

Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.

Join Now: Free!