· Court filing
Media Matters sues X to halt its suits in Ireland and Singapore, says litigation forced layoffs
What he said or did
Media Matters sued X in San Francisco, calling X's suits in Texas, Ireland (filed December 2023) and Singapore (July 2024) a vendetta-driven campaign of libel tourism
and arguing X's own terms required cases to be filed in San Francisco. Twitter UK had also sent demand letters threatening defamation litigation.
Background
Media Matters said defending the litigation had cost it millions of dollars and led it to lay off more than a dozen employees.
Official response
X had since amended its terms of service to require disputes to be filed in the Northern District of Texas. Media Matters left X in January 2026, objecting to new terms it said attempted to apply retroactively to pending suits.
Fact-checks and findings
The Ninth Circuit found Media Matters had knowledge of X's terms of service from the beginning of the Ireland litigation
but waited over a year to invoke them.
What happened next
In April 2025 Judge Vince Chhabria barred X from pursuing the Irish case or filing a UK suit, but the Ninth Circuit reversed that injunction on 19 December 2025. Media Matters dropped the San Francisco case by joint stipulation in March 2026, with each side paying its own costs. Separately, a federal judge in August 2025 blocked an FTC investigation of Media Matters, finding it likely retaliatory.
Sources
- NPR (via WUNC)10 Mar 2025
- Courthouse News Service12 Mar 2026
- Associated Press (via MyNorthwest)18 Aug 2025
- TheWrap14 Jan 2026
This entry records what was publicly said or done, as reported by the sources above. Quotes are attributed to the person who made them.
