X Corp. asked a Texas federal judge Wednesday to sanction Media Matters for America for what it called a “deliberate” and unjustified 15-month delay in seeking to transfer X Corp.’s lawsuit against the media watchdog, saying Media Matters should cover the legal costs incurred in fighting the failed motion.
The motion comes weeks after U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor rejected Media Matters’ bid to move the case to California, where the organization cited a forum selection clause from X’s former terms of service. In Wednesday’s filing, X Corp. said Media Matters had no reasonable excuse for the delay and had even admitted in a related California case that it “just missed” the issue.
“Either way, the late motion to transfer was unjustified,” X Corp. stated, accusing Media Matters of gamesmanship and calling the attempt “improper” and costly.
X Corp., owned by Elon Musk, sued Media Matters in Texas in November 2023, accusing it of fabricating images to falsely show neo-Nazi content placed alongside major brand ads on the X platform. The company alleges the story misrepresented a typical user experience and damaged X’s advertiser relationships.
Media Matters has since filed its own lawsuit in California federal court, arguing X’s Texas and international lawsuits — in Ireland and Singapore — violate the platform’s prior forum clause. Judge O’Connor previously rejected a dismissal motion from Media Matters and criticized its later transfer motion as “untimely.”
Wednesday’s sanctions motion highlights that Media Matters admitted in the California filing that it lacked a good explanation for the delay. X also argued that the watchdog made a “considered decision” not to invoke the clause in other international proceedings, suggesting the delay was strategic.
Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in California partly sided with Media Matters last month, blocking the Ireland lawsuit but allowing the Singapore case to proceed. He also noted the forum clause likely required the lawsuits to be filed in California but declined to fault Media Matters’ new counsel for raising the issue late, suggesting earlier legal teams simply overlooked it.
Still, X Corp. maintains that the delay wasted resources and warrants penalties. “Even Media Matters had little difficulty admitting that ‘certainly in retrospect, it would have been better to assert the argument at the beginning,’” the filing said.
X Corp. also cited Media Matters’ refusal to disclose donor information and its attempt to link Musk’s Tesla Inc. to the case, calling these further signs of bad faith.
The lawsuit is part of a broader multi-jurisdictional battle. Media Matters is reportedly under Federal Trade Commission investigation over alleged coordination with other watchdog groups to prompt advertiser boycotts of X — a move the watchdog attributes to political targeting.
The cases are X Corp. v. Media Matters for America et al., No. 4:23-cv-01175 (N.D. Tex.) and Media Matters for America et al. v. X Corp. et al., No. 3:25-cv-02397 (N.D. Cal.).
