Elon Musk’s X has updated its terms of service to limit legal disputes to a court in Texas whose judge is well known for favoring conservative outcomes.
An update to X’s terms of service which comes into effect on November 15 seeks to restrict any disputes raised against the social media platform to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas or state courts in Tarrant County, Texas.
It’s not uncommon for companies to specify venues for legal action against them. However, these clauses usually specify the location in which the company is based. X is headquartered in Bastrop, which is in the Western Texas Federal Court District. Democrats have dubbed this practice of filing suits in Districts with sympathetic officials “judge shopping”, reported Reuters.
There are currently two X lawsuits happening in the Northern Texas District. Both of these were due to be heard by Conservative U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor. O’Connor is a judge in Fort Worth who has blocked several Biden administration policies, including gun control and LGBTQ+ rights policies.
X’s ongoing lawsuits
Late last year X filed a lawsuit against Media Matters, a non-profit dedicated to combatting online misinformation, after the charity published a report that showed paid advertisements were appearing near pro-Nazi content.
The report, paired with Musk’s alleged antisemitic remarks, caused a huge loss in advertising revenue for the site as advertisers pulled their ads. It was estimated to be as much as a $75 million revenue loss.
The trial for the case is set to go ahead in Fort Worth next year with Judge O’Connor presiding.
Additionally, in August, X filed an anti-trust lawsuit against multiple defendants, alleging that they (along with other non-defendant co-conspirators) conspired illegally to deprive the platform of billions of dollars of advertising revenue.
Judge O’Connor was set to hear this case also, but recused himself after it was revealed by NPR that O’Connor had owned shares in Musk-owned Tesla.
ReadWrite has approached X for comment.
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