Elon Musk and X Platform Reach Agreement with Advertisers Association

Elon Musk-owned X (formerly Twitter) has put an end to a multi-year legal dispute with the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA). According to a joint statement released by the two organizations on Wednesday, all claims and legal proceedings between the parties have been officially dropped, a development expected to bring the relationship between the technology market and the advertising industry to a completely new level. This is reported by Techcrunch.com reports .

This conflict began in 2022 after Elon Musk acquired the social network for $44 billion and dramatically changed its content moderation policy. Following the changes, advertising revenue on the platform plummeted sharply, as major brands grew concerned about the safety of their products and suspended their ad spending on X. Consequently, the management of X began taking drastic measures against the companies.

Lawsuit and its details

According to reports from ixbt.com and other international media sources, X filed a lawsuit against the WFA in 2024. Platform leadership accused the organization of orchestrating a «systematic illegal boycott». The lawsuit alleged that world-famous enterprises such as Mars, CVS Health, Shell, and Lego had deliberately reduced their advertising budgets. However, the defendant strongly rejected these accusations, emphasizing that brands have the free right to decide where to spend their funds.

In March of this year, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit because X failed to demonstrate that it had suffered any injury under antitrust laws. Following that, in April, the platform's leadership filed an appeal against the court's decision. However, today the parties have reached a mutual agreement and resolved the conflict peacefully.

Terms of the parties' agreement

The joint statement notes that WFA and X Corp. are putting the legal proceedings related to the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) behind them. X had claimed that advertisers reduced their spending specifically due to the rules developed by the GARM initiative within the WFA. GARM was formed to prevent ads from appearing next to harmful online content, and its activities had drawn objections from tech giants.

The text of the statement noted the following key aspects:

• WFA confirmed the suspension of GARM's activities on August 9, 2024, and stated that it would not revive GARM or similar initiatives in the future.
• The organization reaffirmed its commitment to freedom of speech enshrined in its 1953 founding Constitution.
• X and WFA reached a full agreement that brands, platforms, and consumers all benefit equally from brand safety innovations.

As a reminder, relations between Elon Musk and major representatives of the advertising market have not always been smooth. Previously, Musk had drawn public attention by making extremely harsh and open statements directed at major sponsors who froze their budgets on the platform. This agreement is expected to be an important step in returning cooperation between social networks and the advertising world to constructive channels.