A liberal advocacy organization blasted President Trump’s administration’s “threats” amid a reported probe into the group by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The FTC opened the probe into Media Matters on Wednesday over whether it improperly coordinated with advertisers, multiple outlets reported Thursday.
In a letter, which was seen by multiple news outlets, the FTC demanded communications between the progressive watchdog group and advertisers, its correspondence with other watchdog groups and copies of its budgets.
Media Matters was sued by tech billionaire and Trump advisor Elon Musk in 2023, with the Tesla CEO accusing the watchdog of coordinating with advertisers in the campaign to pull advertising dollars off of X, the social media platform that Musk bought in 2022.
The lawsuit, which is still ongoing, was filed in U.S. District Court in Texas. Media Matters has denied wrongdoing.
The suit came after Media Matters published a report that outlined how X was placing advertising next to hateful content. A number of blue-chip companies stopped advertising on X after the report was published.
“The Trump administration has been defined by naming right-wing media figures to key posts and abusing the power of the federal government to bully political opponents and silence critics,” Media Matters President Angelo Carusone said in a statement to The Hill. “It’s clear that’s exactly what’s happening here, given Media Matters’ history of holding those same figures to account. These threats won’t work; we remain steadfast to our mission.”
An FTC spokesperson declined to comment.
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson signaled being open to probes of this nature.
“We must prosecute any unlawful collusion between online platforms, and confront advertiser boycotts which threaten competition among those platforms,” Ferguson said in December shortly before being tapped by Trump to head the agency.
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