On Monday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced they he is opening an investigation into Media Matters for “potential fraudulent activity.”
The investigation comes on the heels of X, formerly Twitter’s, CEO Elon Musk accused the left-wing media watchdog group of manipulating data on the social media platform.
🚨 Today I opened an investigation into Media Matters for potential fraudulent activity after X CEO Elon Musk accused the left-wing media watchdog group of manipulating data on the social media platform. https://t.co/oL1UPNXzeo
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) November 21, 2023
From Fox News:
After a slew of advertisers, including IBM, Apple, Disney, Lionsgate and Paramount, fled X, formerly known as Twitter, Musk pledged to hit the watchdog group with a “thermonuclear lawsuit.”
The split second court opens on Monday, X Corp will be filing a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and ALL those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company pic.twitter.com/55vl7PspaQ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2023
Media Matters published a report on Friday accusing X of placing ads next to “white nationalist hashtags.” However, Musk believes that the group “completely misrepresented the real user experience” in order to mislead advertisers.
Republican Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey posted on Sunday that his legal team was “looking into” the matter. Now, Paxton is launching an official investigation with his office after being “extremely troubled” by the allegations.
My team is looking into this matter.
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) November 19, 2023
“We are examining the issue closely to ensure that the public has not been deceived by the schemes of radical left-wing organizations who would like nothing more than to limit freedom by reducing participation in the public square,” said Paxton.
“Under the Texas Business Organizations Code and the Deceptive Trade Practices Act, the OAG will vigorously enforce against nonprofits who commit fraudulent acts in or affecting the state of Texas,” said the Texas Attorney General’s office.
Last week, Musk found himself in hot water after commenting on a post on X that critics believe was anti-Semitic. Since then, the tech billionaire has clarified that anyone posting genocidal content will be suspended from X.
“At risk of stating the obvious, anyone advocating the genocide of *any* group will be suspended from this platform,” Musk wrote in a post on X.
At risk of stating the obvious, anyone advocating the genocide of *any* group will be suspended from this platform
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 17, 2023
“As I said earlier this week, ‘decolonization’, ‘from the river to the sea’ and similar euphemisms necessarily imply genocide. Clear calls for extreme violence are against our terms of service and will result in suspension,” Musk wrote.
Nonetheless, the White House spokesman Andrew Bates condemned Musk, saying that the people’s house condemns “abhorrent promotion of Anti-Semitic and racist hate in the strongest terms, which runs against our core values as Americans.”
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