this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2025
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[–] billwashere@lemmy.world 87 points 3 days ago (6 children)

Can someone explain to me how you can sue over a business choosing to not spend their advertising dollars on a particular service? I mean Elon specifically told his customers to “fuck off” and now he’s suing them?!? I just don’t understand these petulant little man children being so litigious when they get their feefees hurt.

[–] Dozzi92@lemmy.world 68 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Easy, you pack courts with shills, you eliminate government oversight, and then you do whatever you want.

[–] vga@sopuli.xyz 31 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

The actual "easy" part is that you can sue anyone for pretty much anything. Suing is entirely different from winning the case.

Why they think they have a chance of winning is the weirder question, especially when Musk publically told the advertisers to go fuck themselves.

[–] ArtVandelay@lemmy.world 22 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Don't have to win, just drag the case out, causing both sides to spend fortunes on legal fees. Guess who has the most money.

[–] tias@discuss.tchncs.de 23 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

X has an estimated market cap of $9.4 billion, whereas Nestlé has a market cap of $219 billion. That's a corporate superpower with no qualms about monopolizing freshwater or bait- & switching breast milk formula from babies. And it's just one of the companies they're taking on, with a shitty case to boot. So yeah... if I was Elon I would keep my head down.

[–] thr0w4w4y2@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Paying a couple of five or six figure sums to continue advertising on X, versus paying millions to fight a protracted legal battle - I know which option the shareholders of those companies will be pushing for.

[–] billwashere@lemmy.world 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I hate this timeline so much.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Maybe it'll turn around after the Bell protests

[–] kryptonite@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

You mean the Bell Riots that started September 1, 2024? I'm not sure how to tell you this, but that didn't happen on schedule.

[–] satans_methpipe@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Sure thing! I found an article that explains it better than I could:

Oh man. I wish OP would have posted this first.

[–] ehoff121@lemm.ee 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The object of the lawsuit is to get these deep pocketed corporations to settle for millions. If the companies aren’t able to get the suits dismissed, they will settle. They don’t want to get on the wrong side of the current administration and it’s less costly than a years long legal battle.

It's also a strong signal to future boycotters.

Here's the claim from the article:

The complaint alleges that the WFA “organized an advertiser boycott of Twitter through GARM, with the goal of coercing Twitter to comply with the GARM Brand Safety Standards to the satisfaction of GARM.” And it claims that these efforts succeeded in harming Twitter/X, with “at least” 18 GARM-affiliated advertisers stopping their purchase of ads on Twitter between November and December 2022, and other advertisers “substantially” reducing their spending.

[–] null@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 days ago

You can sue for anything.

[–] Star@sh.itjust.works -2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Instead of someone explaining, you could always read the article linked and see for yourself.

[–] billwashere@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I did read the article.

For example how does this:

In fact, the lawsuit claims that ad prices on X “remain well below those charged by X’s closest competitors in the social media advertising market,” so “by refraining from purchasing advertising from X, boycotting advertisers are forgoing a valuable opportunity to purchase low-priced advertising inventory on a platform with brand safety that meets or exceeds industry standards.”

force someone or some company to spend their advertising dollars there. If a company spending ad money doesn’t like what the ad service represents, in this case Elon is a douchebag and we’ll just ignore the fact that he gave a Nazi salute at the inauguration, than they aren’t required to use them as a service, illegal boycott or not, which I don’t even believe is a thing.

Here’s a hyperbolic argument. Let’s just say for example we have two grocery stores. One promotes pedophilia and the other does not. The pedo grocery store has prices that are let’s say half of what the other grocery store is, because I don’t know fucking kids makes you feel generous. A bunch of people get together and decide they don’t wanna shop at NAMBLAmart. Is NAMBLAmart allow to sue me because I didn’t shop there?

Because unless I’m missing something, that’s pretty much the argument.

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think the attempted argument is anti-competitive collusion among all these companies. That GARM, fundamentally, is illegal as an anti-competitive initiative.

[–] billwashere@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Thank you. This is exactly what kind of response I was looking for. I couldn’t find any logic in the argument at all. So essentially the organization is illegal. That at least makes some sense.

Edit: I mean I still think it’s bullshit but I can understand the argument now.