Ninth Circuit lets X pursue international defamation cases against Media Matters

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — Elon Musk’s X can proceed with international litigation against media watchdog Media Matters after a Ninth Circuit panel reversed an anti-suit injunction issued by a lower court.

The three-judge panel found on Friday that the lower federal court improperly blocked the litigation against Media Matters of America in Ireland because the company waived its right to invoke the forum selection clause in a California court.

“Media Matters had knowledge of X’s terms of service from the beginning of the Ireland litigation (and cited them in its briefs for other jurisdictional defenses before the Irish court), so it had all the information it needed to defend its rights. Yet instead of invoking the forum selection clause, Media Matters litigated in Ireland for over a year before it raised the issue for the first time in this action,” the panel said in the seven-page order.

The panel additionally found that X faced prejudice stemming from the Irish litigation, including having to submit affidavits and other evidence that would have otherwise been unnecessary.

“Media Matters’ excessive delay in raising the forum selection clause, coupled with the litigation already conducted in Ireland, prejudiced X. This conclusion is, if anything, even stronger in the context of an anti-suit injunction, which turns on principles of equity,” the panel said.

The panel — comprised of U.S. Circuit Judges Daniel Bress, a Donald Trump appointee; Salvador Mendoza Jr., a Joe Biden appointee; and Danny Boggs, a Ronald Reagan appointee sitting by appointment from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit — remanded the case back to the federal court, adding that the lower court could “consider whether an injunction against other possible foreign litigation is necessary or appropriate.”

Representatives for either party did not respond to a request for comment.

Media Matters claimed it was the subject of retaliatory and abusive litigations by X around the world for reporting that the platform placed ads by large corporations next to white supremacist posts, prompting the nonprofit to countersue in Northern California federal court.

Media Matters evoked a forum selection clause in X’s terms of service in its San Francisco suit earlier this year, hoping to force the company to litigate its claims against the nonprofit in that jurisdiction and not in the different courts around the world, including Ireland and Singapore. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, a Barack Obama appointee, later ordered X in April not to pursue its ongoing lawsuit against Media Matters in Ireland or to begin filing an additional lawsuit in the U.K.

At oral arguments in November, X’s appeal attorney, Paul Clement, told the panel that the lower court’s decision to allow Media Matters to bring up the forum clause after many months of legal proceedings was erroneous, and it was impossible to get all litigation back to one forum.

“There is no way to put Humpty Dumpty back together again,” Clement said. “There was litigation happening in Texas. There is litigation happening in Ireland.”

However, Media Matters representative Justin Nelson claimed X can litigate in the U.S. and receive worldwide damages, noting the current case in Ireland was “only contested on jurisdiction and venue.”

“X Corp.’s multiplicity of suits against Media Matters is part of a broader strategy to intimidate the media and recoup lost advertising dollars by any means possible,” the nonprofit said in its March 10 complaint. “It has cost Media Matters millions to litigate and forced Media Matters to layoff over a dozen employees — a result that Musk has publicly celebrated.”

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