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Elon Musk’s X Corp. achieved a legal victory on Thursday when a Texas judge denied Media Matters’ Motion to Dismiss in the defamation lawsuit filed by the social media platform.
Due to U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor’s decision, X’s lawsuit against the nonprofit media watchdog and two of its staff members will move forward to trial on April 7.
X, formerly known as Twitter, initiated the lawsuit in November after Media Matters published a report showing that ads from companies like Apple, IBM, and Disney appeared alongside hateful content on the platform. According to the suit, these companies paused their advertising campaigns on X as a result.
X’s attorneys argued that the Media Matters report was “intentionally deceptive” and caused financial harm to the company.
In a 16-page order, Judge O’Connor first established that the court had proper jurisdiction over the defendants and that venue was appropriate in the Northern District of Texas. He then addressed whether X Corp. had properly stated a claim. Regarding the claim for tortious interference with a contract, O’Connor stated:
“Plaintiff has provided sufficient allegations to survive dismissal. Plaintiff has factually alleged: the existence of contracts subject to interference; intentional acts of interference; and proximate causation. It cannot reasonably be disputed that Plaintiff has named parties who contracted for paid ads on X. Media Matters’ reporting has acknowledged as much. Plaintiff has therefore pled facts supporting this element.”
Regarding the claim for business disparagement, O’Connor noted:
“First, construing the facts pled by Plaintiff in the light most favorable to it, that Defendants manipulated and intended to deceive Plaintiff’s advertisers is sufficient to support the first element. Plaintiff alleges Defendants acted with malice and without privilege by asserting Defendants’ reporting was false and the ‘frequency and tenor of Media Matters’ statements disparaging X and the safety of advertising on the X platform’ supports an inference of actual malice. And finally, Plaintiff has pled a plausible claim regarding special damages in that Defendants’ tortious acts undermined ‘advertisers’ faith in X Corp.’s abilities to monitor and curate content.'”
It’s important to note that the court has not determined the truth of X Corp.’s allegations or whether they are supported by evidence—only that the claims have been sufficiently pleaded to move past the motion to dismiss. The case will now proceed to discovery, with the trial scheduled for April 7, 2025.
Musk, for his part, seems pleased with the outcome.
