- Five senators asked the DOJ to probe the advertising tactics of Elon Musk’s X.
- They said they were alarmed by reports that X used Musk’s political power to sway advertisers.
- Leaders from one advertiser interpreted its dealings with X as an implicit threat, the WSJ previously reported.
A group of Democratic senators have called for a Justice Department probe into whether X has used Elon Musk’s political status to pressure companies into advertising on the platform.
Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Richard Blumenthal, Adam Schiff, and Chris Van Hollen wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi to “express alarm about reports that Elon Musk’s social media company ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) is leveraging his influential position in the Trump Administration to extract revenue from advertisers.”
“If evidence emerges that Musk is, in fact, using his official role to coerce advertisers or is participating in particular matters in which he has a financial interest, we ask that DOJ investigate the potential violation of federal ethics laws, as the Department should for any other federal employee who appears to be breaking the law,” the letter says.
Business Insider viewed a copy of the letter, which The Wall Street Journal earlier reported.
The senators specifically reference an article published last month by the Journal that said X’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, and a lieutenant had pushed IPG to spend more money on X, citing people with knowledge of the talks. The Journal reported that IPG execs had interpreted the message as a reminder that the Trump administration could impede its proposed $13 billion merger with the ad giant Omnicom.
X did not immediately respond to a request for comment. IPG didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the senators’ letter. The company previously said clients had the ultimate decision-making authority on where they spend their budgets.
The senators also wrote a separate letter to Andrew Ferguson, chair of the Federal Trade Commission, and Omeed Assefi, acting assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s antitrust division, urging them to “resist any pressure based on private business interests to manipulate your agenda.”
The senators asked the DOJ and FTC to inform them if Musk or his associates attempted to interfere with their antitrust work.
“Every business seeking a merger or acquisition deserves to have their matter reviewed without undue influence from the President or his allies,” the letter says.
Ad agencies and consultants have told BI that they’re begrudgingly advising clients to spend on X to help avoid political and legal risks.
It’s an about-face from the waves of advertisers who fled X over concerns about brand safety, performance, and the return of some banned accounts after Musk took over the platform in 2022.
X has since gone on to sue several big-name advertisers — including Mars, Shell, and Colgate — accusing them of illegally conspiring to boycott the platform through their membership in a now-defunct industry initiative called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media. GARM shut down days after X filed the lawsuit. Its parent organization, a trade body called the World Federation of Advertisers, has said it plans to defend itself against the lawsuit and said it hadn’t violated any antitrust laws. The litigation is ongoing.
Read the letters Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Richard Blumenthal, Adam Schiff, and Chris Van Hollen sent to the DOJ and FTC in full below:
