Senators call to probe the advertising tactics of Elon Musk

• Five senators asked the Doj to probe the advertising tactics of Elon Musk.
• They said they were alarmed by information that X used Musk’s political power to influence advertisers.
• The leaders of an advertiser interpreted his relations with X as an implicit threat, previously reported the WSJ.

A group of Democratic senators called for an investigation into the Ministry of Justice to find out if X used Elon Musk’s political status to put pressure on businesses in advertising on the platform.

Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Richard Blumenthal, Adam Schiff and Chris Van Hollen wrote to the Attorney General Pam Bondi to “express reports according to which Elon Musk ‘` x’ ‘social media (formerly Twitter) is due to his influential position in the Trump administration to extract advertisers. “

“If evidence emerges that Musk actually uses his official role to force advertisers or participate in specific questions in which he has a financial interest, we ask that the Doj investigates the potential violation of federal ethics laws, as the ministry should for any other federal employee who seem to break the law,” said the letter.

Business Insider has watched a copy of the letter, whose Wall Street Journal reported previously.

Senators specifically refer to an article published last month by the newspaper which said that the CEO of X, Linda Yaccarino, and a lieutenant had pushed the IPG to spend more money on X, citing people knowing talks. The newspaper reported that IPG leaders had interpreted the message as a reminder that the Trump administration could hinder its proposed fusion of $ 13 billion with the advertising giant Omnicom.

X did not immediately respond to a request for comments. IPG did not immediately respond to a request for comments on the Senators’ letter. Previously, the company said that customers had the ultimate decision -making authority on which they spend their budget.

Senators have also written a separate letter to Andrew Ferguson, president of the Federal Trade Commission, and to Omeed ASSEFI, an acting assistant attorney for the antitrust division of the DoJ, exhorting them to “resist any pressure based on private commercial interests to manipulate your program”.

The senators asked the DOJ and the FTC to inform them if Musk or his associates were trying to interfere with their antitrust work.

“Each company in search of a merger or an acquisition deserves to make their business heard without undue influence by the president or his allies,” said the letter.

Advertising agencies and consultants told BI that they advised its customers to spend X to avoid political and legal risks.

This is a subject about the waves of advertisers who fled X on the concerns about brand safety, performance and return of certain prohibited accounts after Musk took over the platform in 2022.

X has since continued several renowned advertisers – notably March, Shell and Colgate – accusing them of conspiring illegally to boycott the platform thanks to their membership in an industrial initiative now disappeared called The Global Alliance for Responsible Media. Garm closed his days after X has filed the trial. Its mother organization, a commercial organization called the World Advertiser’s Federation, said that it was planning to defend itself against the trial and said that it had not violated any antitrust laws. The dispute is underway.

Read the letters The Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Richard Blumenthal, Adam Schiff and Chris Van Hollen sent to the Doj and the FTC in full below: