Elon Musk calls for "criminal prosecution" of X ad boycott perpetrators

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/07/elon-musk-calls-for-criminal-prosecution-of-x-ad-boycott-perpetrators/

by charles_f • 2 years ago

22 16 2 years ago

wkat42422• 2 years ago

Wow. Such insanity. Now he wants to insult advertisers and then sue them for terminating their business with him? In what kind of twisted world does that make sense?

leereeves2• 2 years ago

Group boycotts like this one are illegal in certain circumstances. Here's an explanation unrelated to this case:

https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/gui...

"Any company may, on its own, refuse to do business with another firm, but an agreement among competitors not to do business with targeted individuals or businesses may be an illegal boycott, especially if the group of competitors working together has market power."

malshe• 2 years ago

The term “agreement among competitors” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that quotation. Is there any evidence that this boycott was coordinated? AFAIK so far every advertiser who pulled out has a solid reason for doing so.

wkat42422• 2 years ago

Oh. I see. Sounds a bit like that bakery that said "we don't bake cakes for gays" and got justifiably (in my opinion) sued. Though it's not really the same, it's kinda the reverse (refusing business)

I guess if such a thing really happened he might have a case. But I'm sure Disney can easily get out of it by just submitting the infamous "go fuck yourself" interview into evidence :)

root_axis• 2 years ago

Not applicable in this case since the advertisers are not competitors to twitter, rather they are soliciting twitter for a service and there is pretty much no scenario where it would be illegal not to buy a service from a particular vendor.

anigbrowl• 2 years ago

I get the impression he's been doing more drugs lately. The other day he was alleging that people voting against a voter ID bill in Congress were traitors (in all caps) and insinuating they deserve the death penalty; and he amplifies bizarre conspiracy theories or plain fake news stories every few days. Perhaps he's just deliberately trolling to confound his critics, but it's equally plausible that he's trying to adjust reality to his feelings rather than the other way around.

xenospn• 2 years ago

Probably just moving the goal posts in preparation for trumps inevitable return.

rsynnott2• 2 years ago

A very stable genius.

sillywalk• 2 years ago

"...Congressional testimony from The Daily Wire's Ben Shapiro..."

uberman• 2 years ago

So much for free speech absolutist.

mynona• 2 years ago

It sucks that a lot of corps dont see them self as companies but as power in the politcal realm. The only reson does companies are boycotting is because of the politics of elons musk. Its righteous to prosecurte these power-drunk, corporations. Blackrock and vanguard should be dissolved as a consequence.

rsynnott2• 2 years ago

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again, I suppose? He's already tried this on with the CCDH and MMFA.

Elon Musk calls for "criminal prosecution" of X ad boycott perpetrators

Related Stories