Media Matters for America sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in federal court late Monday, alleging that Paxton violated the First Amendment last month when he opened an investigation into the organization over its reporting into Elon Musk’s X app.
Media Matters, a progressive watchdog group that reported that major ad campaigns were running next to white nationalist content on X, said that Paxton’s investigation was unlawful retaliation designed to punish the website for those stories.
The stories contributed to trouble for Musk and X and seemingly helped to inspire a massive wave of advertiser pullouts from the social media platform.
Paxton, a Republican, announced Nov. 20 that he was opening an investigation into Media Matters “for potential fraudulent activity” related to Media Matters’ investigation of X. Musk at the time applauded the probe, saying on X, “Fraud has both civil & criminal penalties.”
Paxton’s announcement coincided with X filing a lawsuit against Media Matters, claiming that the website unlawfully interfered with X’s relationships with advertisers when Media Matters reported on ads running adjacent to pro-Nazi content in the app’s feed.
Lawyers for Media Matters said in the Monday lawsuit that “the chill imposed by his retaliatory scheme injures Plaintiffs’ ability to investigate and publish news stories and further chills their ability to participate in a robust public discussion around political extremism on the X platform.”
The lawsuit asks a judge to block Paxton’s investigation permanently. It was filed in federal court in Maryland, where the Media Matters reporter who wrote the articles, Eric Hananoki, lives and works.
Paxton’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. X also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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