Brazil's X ban is sending lots of people to Bluesky

"The lawsuit from his X platform against the non-profit advertising initiative GARM has led to its dissolution. A major ad industry group is shutting down, days after Elon Musk-owned X filed a lawsuit that claimed the group illegally conspired to boycott advertising on his platform." -- Google

I.e. Musk did not sue the advertisers.

Yes he did:

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txnd.39...

Parties include the following. The last 5 are advertisers.

- WORLD FEDERATION OF ADVERTISERS;

- UNILEVER PLC

- UNILEVER UNITED STATES, INC.

- MARS, INCORPORATED

- CVS HEALTH CORPORATION

- ØRSTED A/S

docket: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69017972/x-corp-v-world...

Yes, he sued not only the cartel organization, but its members. That seems only reasonable, as he sued them for violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

Do you think the Sherman Act is an unreasonable limitation on the free market?

I only specifically responded to the claim that the advertisers were not a party to the lawsuit.

I make no claim as to the nature of claim, the appropriateness of the Sherman act, or if the claims will fail as a matter of law or fact (or neither). I am not a lawyer and am especially clueless on the topic of antitrust law.

I did however, incidentally, see this recently which may be of interest on the topic:

https://verdict.justia.com/2024/08/26/why-elon-musks-and-xs-...

So he did sue the advertisers.

And unless Musk has some extraordinary evidence it will be difficult to provide those advertisers colluded together to better themselves at the expense of other market participants. Especially when they aren't even in the same markets.

Also if you think this situation is akin to a cartel god knows what you think of IMDB or the Michelin guide.

The linked documents describe the cartel and how it violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. It's not a difficult read.

Musk's lawyers "describing" something isn't evidence.

Given Musk's personality, I would not be the tiniest bit surprised if he's suing without any actual evidence, just because he's angry and because he can.

I mean, remember, this is the guy who tried to get out of buying Twitter, and then refused to pay out contractually-obligated packages to many of the former management team he fired. (I'm not the biggest fan in the world of golden parachutes, but this was pretty egregious.)

Sorry, but I'm saddened by about how far people are willing to go to dislike Musk.

As far as I am concerned, his contributions to the US, society, and the future via Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, etc., dwarf his various foibles.

P.S. if the pay packages were contractually obligated, then the courts would have forced him to pay them. Courts are generally pretty biased in favor of employees when they sue their employer.

P.P.S if his case has no merit, the advertisers are hardly unable to defend themselves, they are huge corporations. You don't need to feel sorry for them.

Yeah, I love living in a society where money is diverted from public infrastructure like railroads into fake vacuum-tube con jobs and tunnels that hold more cars. I love living next to unreliable cars that drive into traffic and catch on fire. I’m happy when rocket launches destroy local ecosystems with concrete waste and toxic pollution. Elon has really done so much for humanity.