Elon Musk drops Unilever from X's antitrust lawsuit, reaches agreement on brand safety

Billionaire Elon Musk has reportedly dropped the name of Unilever from his lawsuit that claimed that the consumer goods company conspired with an advertising industry group to boycott the X platform.

According to a report by the Reuters news agency, Musk-owned X platform (formerly Twitter), X has dismissed claims against Unilever in the antitrust lawsuit.

London-based Unilever, the owner of brands like Dove and Pepsodent, said that it reached an agreement with X, "which has committed to meeting our responsibility standards to ensure the safety and performance of our brands on the platform".

In a statement, X said it reached an agreement with Unilever. The social media platform added, " pleased to continue our partnership with them on the platform".

However, the Reuters report added that X would pursue antitrust claims against other defendants.

A lawsuit has accused the World Federation of Advertisers and group members Unilever, CVS Health, and Dansih renewable energy firm Orsted of conspiring to withhold "billions of dollars in advertising revenue" from X.

A clutch of advertisers are wary of buying ads on the X platform after Musk took over the social media platform in October 2022. They have expressed concern that their brands would appear next to harmful content such as 'racist' posts that under prior management might have been removed.

The global advertising group launched an initiative in 2019 to "help the industry address the challenge of illegal or harmful connections on digital media platforms and its monetization via advertising".