The Federal Commission of Commerce has requested documents on media issues on possible coordination with other media watchers accused by Elon Musk to help orchestrate the boycotts of X, according to a document seen by Reuters on Thursday.
Demand for Civil Investigation by Reuters seeks information on media communications with other groups that evaluate misinformation and hate speech in news and social media, including an initiative of the World Advertising Federation called Global Alliance for Response Media. X has in progress against both organizations.
The probe marks a scrutiny of the United States Government on whether groups like Media Matters helped advertisers coordinate -to take dollars AD X after Musk bought the social media site known as Twitter in 2022.
Demand seeks all documents Media Matters, a Washington Liberal Defense Group, based on DC, has produced or received in the X -demand related to the boycotts of the advertisers.
FTC President Andrew Ferguson, who was appointed by President Trump to run the agency, emphasized the potential of a probe in December.
“We need to pursue any illegal collusion between online platforms and deal with the boycotts of the advertisers who threaten the competition between these platforms,” Ferguson said in a statement on an unrelated case.
The Chamber’s judicial committee, chaired by the Republican member Jim Jordan, accused the global alliance for the media responsible last year of coordinating a boycott of the illegal group. The initiative was closed in August.
A spokesman for the FTC refused to comment.
The issues of the media and the World Federation of Announcers did not immediately respond to a comment request.
A demand for investigation is not proof of the offenses, and not all research results in the FTC performing actions.
Advertising at X will increase in 2025 for the first time since Musk bought it in 2022, said the Emarketer research firm in March, but remains below the pre-musk level. The CEO of Tesla was an important donor of the Trump presidential campaign of 2024 and directs his initiative to reduce the federal workforce.
Last year, X succeeded in the World Federation of Announcers and a group of major brands of the Federal Court of Texas, accusing them of illegally conspiring to reduce advertising expenditure.
The group has asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit, stating that advertisers chose other platforms based on their concerns about X commitment to brand security.
The media and X struggle with federal courts in Texas and California.
X succeeded in the media in 2023, accusing the organization of diffaming it in an article saying that the ads for the main brands had appeared next to X publications that led to extreme extremist content of the far right.
Media Matters has denied complaints and sued X, accusing -the abusive, expensive and meritorious demands to punish the group for its advertising report in X after Musk bought the site.
The organization has said that the defense of X claims has cost him millions of dollars.
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