X Drops Unilever From Advertiser Lawsuit

Social media platform X, formerly Twitter, has dropped its legal claims against Unilever in a lawsuit that argues companies illegally stopped advertising on the firm’s services.

X said it was dropping the claim in a filing in federal court in Wichita Falls, Texas.

London-based Unilever, whose brands include Dove soap and Knorr cooking ingredients, said in a statement it had reached an agreement with X and that the platform has “committed to meeting our responsibility standards to ensure the safety and performance of our brands on the platform”.

X said in a statement it had reached an agreement with Unilever and was pleased “to continue our partnership with them on the platform”.

Advertiser ‘conspiracy’

It said it was “continuing to pursue our antitrust claims against the other defendants”.

The lawsuit still names pharmacy chain CVS, candy maker Mars, and Danish renewable energy firm Orsted, as well as the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), which it claims conspired to withold “billions of dollars in advertising revenue” from the platform.

The federation and the other named companies have not responded in court and have not commented publicly on the case.

Following X’s acquisition by outspoken businessman Elon Musk in October 2022, advertising revenue underwent a sustained slump amidst companies’ concerns that their ads might appear alongside unsavoury content that might not be removed after Musk slashed the firm’s content moderation operations.

Last November X sued nonprofit Media Matters over a study that found the ads of major brands such as Apple and IBM were appearing alongside pro-Nazi content.

IBM paused its advertising on X following the report.

Legal action

A US district judge in June set that lawsuit for a trial in April of next year.

In March a separate case against nonprofit the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) was dismissed after a judge said there could be “no mistaking” that the suit was about “punishing” the firm’s critics.

X had claimed the organisation harmed its business by scaring away advertisers and had cost it tens of millions of dollars.

Musk is also suing other critics and former business partners, including OpenAI and its co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.