Media Groups Probed by FTC Over Allegedly Coordinating Boycotts
Bloomberg (archive.ph)
By Josh Sisco and Kurt Wagner
2025-06-03 01:54:01GMT
The US Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether more than a dozen media and advertising groups have illegally colluded to boycott online content alleged to be hateful, false or misleading, according to people familiar with the matter and a document seen by Bloomberg News.
The investigation partially relates to litigation between Elon Musk’s X and the liberal watchdog group Media Matters For America, but extends far beyond that dispute to include other trade groups, including Interactive Advertising Bureau, World Federation of Advertisers and the news rating company Ad Fontes Media Inc., according to the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
“No matter what the possible claim the FTC is investigating, we are confident that Ad Fontes Media’s business activities are not only proper and lawful, but constitutionally protected,” Vanessa Otero, Ad Fontes chief executive officer, said in a statement. “So we are dismayed to even receive such a broad and intrusive demand letter in the first place.”
A spokesperson for the FTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Spokespeople for X, IAB and WFA and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The New York Times first reported details of the investigation.
The investigation stems in part from a drop in advertising at X, formerly known as Twitter, after Musk bought the company in late 2022, according to the people.
X’s advertising business suffered following Musk’s $44 billion takeover and his decision to eliminate some rules and policies governing content on the service in the name of promoting free speech. Many advertisers paused or pulled back on spending, and X sued the World Federation of Advertisers in August over the mass exodus. It later added several individual companies as defendants.
In May, those companies including Nestle SA, Shell PLC and Abbott Laboratories filed a request to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that they each reacted independently to changes on X without coordinating. Musk and Media Matters are also entangled in similar litigation.
Media Matters last week won a ruling by a federal appeals court in Washington rejecting a demand from the state of Texas for its internal records as part of an investigation by the state’s attorney general.
“The Trump administration has been defined by naming right-wing media figures to key posts and abusing the power of the federal government to bully perceived opponents and silence critics,” Media Matters President Angelo Carusone said in a statement. “It’s clear that’s exactly what’s happening here.”
As part of its investigation, the FTC is asking for communications between the dozen-plus ad and news industry groups that monitor news sources, websites and other outlets for misinformation, hate speech, false or deceptive content and other similar topics, according to the document viewed by Bloomberg.
The FTC is asking whether any content ratings may be “politically biased,” what methodologies underpin the ratings and for any allegations that they are unreliable, subjective or unscientific, according to the document.
FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson has long suggested that he would open such a probe dating back to the end of the Biden Administration, when he was still a minority commissioner.
In a December opinion supporting a settlement over an online sneaker seller’s misleading terms of service, he called for an investigation into tech platforms “for banning users and censoring content.”
In that opinion he specifically mentioned the alleged advertiser boycott of X and expressed support for Musk’s ownership of the social media platform, saying “its current turn toward free expression is due only to its new owner’s unusually firm commitment to free and open debate.” He added that if an “investigation reveals anti-competitive cartels that facilitate or promote censorship, we ought to bust them up.”
Bloomberg (archive.ph)
By Josh Sisco and Kurt Wagner
2025-06-03 01:54:01GMT
The US Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether more than a dozen media and advertising groups have illegally colluded to boycott online content alleged to be hateful, false or misleading, according to people familiar with the matter and a document seen by Bloomberg News.
The investigation partially relates to litigation between Elon Musk’s X and the liberal watchdog group Media Matters For America, but extends far beyond that dispute to include other trade groups, including Interactive Advertising Bureau, World Federation of Advertisers and the news rating company Ad Fontes Media Inc., according to the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
“No matter what the possible claim the FTC is investigating, we are confident that Ad Fontes Media’s business activities are not only proper and lawful, but constitutionally protected,” Vanessa Otero, Ad Fontes chief executive officer, said in a statement. “So we are dismayed to even receive such a broad and intrusive demand letter in the first place.”
A spokesperson for the FTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Spokespeople for X, IAB and WFA and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The New York Times first reported details of the investigation.
The investigation stems in part from a drop in advertising at X, formerly known as Twitter, after Musk bought the company in late 2022, according to the people.
X’s advertising business suffered following Musk’s $44 billion takeover and his decision to eliminate some rules and policies governing content on the service in the name of promoting free speech. Many advertisers paused or pulled back on spending, and X sued the World Federation of Advertisers in August over the mass exodus. It later added several individual companies as defendants.
In May, those companies including Nestle SA, Shell PLC and Abbott Laboratories filed a request to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that they each reacted independently to changes on X without coordinating. Musk and Media Matters are also entangled in similar litigation.
Media Matters last week won a ruling by a federal appeals court in Washington rejecting a demand from the state of Texas for its internal records as part of an investigation by the state’s attorney general.
“The Trump administration has been defined by naming right-wing media figures to key posts and abusing the power of the federal government to bully perceived opponents and silence critics,” Media Matters President Angelo Carusone said in a statement. “It’s clear that’s exactly what’s happening here.”
As part of its investigation, the FTC is asking for communications between the dozen-plus ad and news industry groups that monitor news sources, websites and other outlets for misinformation, hate speech, false or deceptive content and other similar topics, according to the document viewed by Bloomberg.
The FTC is asking whether any content ratings may be “politically biased,” what methodologies underpin the ratings and for any allegations that they are unreliable, subjective or unscientific, according to the document.
FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson has long suggested that he would open such a probe dating back to the end of the Biden Administration, when he was still a minority commissioner.
In a December opinion supporting a settlement over an online sneaker seller’s misleading terms of service, he called for an investigation into tech platforms “for banning users and censoring content.”
In that opinion he specifically mentioned the alleged advertiser boycott of X and expressed support for Musk’s ownership of the social media platform, saying “its current turn toward free expression is due only to its new owner’s unusually firm commitment to free and open debate.” He added that if an “investigation reveals anti-competitive cartels that facilitate or promote censorship, we ought to bust them up.”
