The Twitter logo appears on a smartphone and computer screen in Athens, Greece, on April 20, 2024.
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A Texas federal judge has ruled against a request to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Media Matters and Elon Musk’s X.
A lawsuit brought by X against the nonprofit media watchdog and two of its employees is set to go to trial on April 7, according to a decision issued Thursday by U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor.
X, formerly known as Twitter, originally filed the lawsuit in November after Media Matters reported that hateful content on the platform was appearing next to online ads from companies like Apple, IBM, and Disney. Those companies then pulled the plug on X’s ad campaigns, according to the lawsuit.
Attorneys representing X argued that the Media Matters report was “intentionally deceptive” and caused financial harm to the company.
Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters and one of the defendants, said in a statement at the time that the “frivolous lawsuit” was “an attempt to silence X’s critics.”
O’Connor denied the nonprofit’s efforts to dismiss the lawsuit, saying the plaintiff “properly asserted the claims.”
Media Matters and X did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In August, O’Connor denied Media Matters’ request to force Musk to compile the list. Tesla As a party in interest in X’s lawsuit against the nonprofit, O’Connor said in a legal filing at the time that “there is no evidence that Tesla has a direct financial interest in the outcome of this case.”
O’Connor was also overseeing X’s recent antitrust lawsuit against the Global Advertising Association and its members, including Unilever, Mars, and CVS Health. O’Connor then recused himself from the lawsuit. He did not give a reason for his recusal, but recent financial disclosures show that the judge had invested in Unilever.
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