X adds Twitch to lawsuit accusing advertisers of anticompetitive practices

Two of the web’s biggest social platforms are set to go head-to-head in court. X has added Twitch to the list of defendants in a lawsuit that accuses advertisers of anticompetitive practices.

The allegations in the lawsuit — which X initially filed back in August — stem from a widespread advertiser boycott that took place in 2022 on the platform then known as Twitter. The chaotic early days of Elon Musk‘s reign as X Chairman, as well as Musk’s apparent facilitation of hate speech on the platform, led numerous brands and agencies to withdraw or scale back their X ad efforts.

The suit attributes the boycott to The Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), an initiative put together by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA). That’s where Twitch enters the story. The Amazon-owned streaming hub was affiliated with GARM, which was discontinued in the wake of the X lawsuit. Despite the shutdown, WFA CEO Stephan Loerke said in August that his team would “demonstrate our full adherence to competition rules in all of our activites.”

An undeterred X is now arguing that Twitch is one of the companies that colluded to withhold billions of ad dollars from the Musk-led platform. That “marked departure” from previous activity, the lawsuit claims, has continued in the years following the boycott. Twitch has reportedly refrained from buying any X ads in the U.S. since 2022 while endorsing GARM and its brand safety standards.

Musk’s prominent position in Donald Trump‘s reelection campaign has increased his power considerably, but X is still struggling to win back advertisers who bristled at its previous activity. Even though X has provided greater transparency on its moderation efforts and has rolled out premium products for advertisers, it is expected to continue facing the reality of declining budgets in 2025 — even if CEO Linda Yaccarino personally courts agencies in an attempt to win them back.

The outcome of the ad boycott lawsuit may give X another surface-level win, like the one it got when the WFA discontinued GARM. But Twitch’s activity on X post-2022 shows that buyers are still treading lightly on Elon Musk’s personal playground, so X may need to continue searching for more alternative revenue streams it can provide to its creator community.