Originally published at: Elon Musk Sues Media Matters in Heated Twitter Ad Dispute
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This lawsuit is so meritless that it’s bordering on frivolous. The lawyers who filed this lawsuit had better have some actual evidence to even base these claims on because a motion to dismiss is coming really fast, and if they don’t have anything, a judge might just decide this is frivolous, which will get the attorneys in some hot water.
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Behold the “free speech absolutist”.
This is just bullying with money, not much different in motive from Thiel re: Gawker.
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Texas law firms, but isn’t X’s corporate HQ still in California? Where was it filed?
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I just read the actual complaint. Jesus. He’s saying basically that the way in which Media Matters used Xitter resulted in the ads showing up next to Nazi content, so it was Media Matters who is responsible for that, not Xitter. Fuck, what a moron. They’re actually admitting that what Media Matters claimed in their article is actually true. The whole complaint amounts to “This is defamation because they used our product in a manner we didn’t anticipate, so that’s their fault and they did it on purpose! WAAAAAAAAHHH!” Fucking idiot. I look forward to reading to motion to dismiss. It should be fun.
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The complaint says Texas is the appropriate jurisdiction because many of the advertisers mentioned in the Media Matters article do significant business in Texas. I don’t know if that will hold up, but maybe. Jurisdiction in these cases is always complicated, and forum shopping happens all the time.
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From the article, I see Glenn Greenwald is supporting Musk against Media Matters. Because of course.
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U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas Fort Worth Division. Not sure about that court’s reputation re: potential forum shopping by Musk.
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I heard “suit filed in Texas” and assumed it was filed with the Amarillo judge who makes all his decisions based on what he reads on Newsmax. Glad to see it’s at least not going to be in that dude’s court…
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I’ve seen jurisdiction based on less, but it really should be either in Nevada, California, or DC, because Xitter is incorporated in Nevada, its headquarters are in California, and Media Matters is in DC. The problem is that the law also allows jurisdiction where a party does significant business, or where the events surrounding the lawsuit took place, and with modern online businesses, that pretty much allows a legally legitimate argument for jurisdiction almost anywhere you want, thus the forum shopping.
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… how could they even enforce a judgment?
Does Media Matters have assets in Texas to seize
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It’s a federal district court, not a state court. As long as Media Matters has sufficient contact with Texas, that’s enough for the court to have personal jurisdiction over them. The Media Matters website is viewable from Texas, and they presumably have donors based in Texas. That’s plenty enough contact to establish personal jurisdiction. As far as assets to seize, that’s not an issue and not how that works. This is a federal court. If they issue a judgment against Media Matters, then Xitter can take that judgment to whatever appropriate local authorities they need to in order to enforce that judgment, if it involves seizing assets. Which would be unlikely.
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Well lucky thing they won’t be ruining your free speech absolutist platform anymore.
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The guy knows he’s insulting the people he hopes will pay him money, right? His customers. Pure marketing genius.
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No worries. He is still the richest idiot on the planet.
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Many of the largest advertisers are the greatest oppressors of your right to free speech
I’ll bet his dog-and-pony show CEO is grinding her teeth again.
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Prediction:
Dismissed in motion practice before it even gets to discovery.
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Motions to dismiss based on frivolous claims are done as a matter of course in Federal Court. Known in legal parlance as a “Rule 11 Motion”. Every federal civil defendant does this early on to put a plaintiff on the back foot and justify their suit.
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