By Steve Stroth and Malathi Nayak | Bloomberg

Elon Musk’s X Corp., formerly known as Twitter, accused Media Matters for America in a lawsuit of “maliciously” trying to drive away advertisers from the social media platform by reporting that ads for Apple, International Business Machines and Oracle were running next to pro-Nazi content.

“Media Matters designed both these images and its resulting media strategy to drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp.,” the company said in a complaint filed Monday in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas.

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The report by the liberal watchdog group followed a flurry of antisemitic and other hate speech on X, some of which Musk himself promoted, eliciting outrage and alienating advertisers. Apple and Walt Disney Co. have suspended or halted ad spending on the platform.

X claims Media Matters kick-started a “blatant smear campaign” by publishing almost 20 articles against the social media platform and Musk in November. Media Matters is accused in the complaint of illegally interfering with X’s contracts with advertisers and making malicious and false statements that it’s intentionally placing ads near antisemitic posts.

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“This is a frivolous lawsuit meant to bully X’s critics into silence,” Media Matters President Angelo Carusone said in a statement. “Media Matters stands behind its reporting and...

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