SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - Asking for a reversal on an anti-suit injunction issued by a lower court, social media giant X explained to a Ninth Circuit panel on Monday that it had already been litigating in Ireland for 18 months before a media watchdog nonprofit's attempt to block its other lawsuits against X.

Media Matters of America claims it is 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 different courts around the world. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria 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.

X's appeal attorney Paul Clement said Monday the lower court's decision to allow Media Matters to bring up the forum clause after many months of legal proceedings, including affidavits and declarations from legal experts, 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 to the three-judge appeals panel. "There was litigation happening in Texas. There is litigation happening in Ireland." 

The Texas suit came after Musk had threatened a "thermonuclear lawsuit" over the watchdog's reports that ads for well-known companies such as IBM and NBCUniversal appeared next white nationalist hashtags on X's site.

According to X, Media Matters had knowingly and maliciously manufactured side-by-side images depicting advertisers' posts on X beside Neo-Nazi and white-nationalist fringe content and then portrayed these manufactured images as if they were what typical X users experience on the platform. After the initial Texas complaint, X's international corporate entities followed up with similar lawsuits in Ireland and Singapore and threatened to also bring a case in the U.K.

U.S. Circuit Judge Daniel Bress, a Donald Trump appointee, questioned why X continues to want to sue Media Matters in multiple jurisdictions.

Clement said litigating multiple cases is the "surest way to ensure that all the worldwide damages could be recovered by filing these in different jurisdictions." 

However, Media Matters representative Justin Nelson claimed it is possible for X to 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."

Bress and U.S. Circuit Judge Salvador Mendoza Jr., a Joe Biden appointee, asked Media Matters why it took so long to bring up the forum selection clause.

Nelson admitted another colleague "missed it," while also saying the legal mechanism was unavailable to use in Irish court.

"There was no procedural opportunity to raise it in legal briefing," he said of the Irish proceedings. 

While Chhabria, a Barack Obama appointee, denied X's request to stay the lawsuit while it appeals the April preliminary injunction that paused the Ireland case, the preliminary injunction didn't stay the Singapore case since it was already well advanced.

In July, Chhabria also denied X's motion to dismiss Media Matter's complaint for lack of jurisdiction. The Elon Musk-owned social media platform, previously known as Twitter, had claimed that damages Media Matters can seek on its contract claim are less than the $75,000 minimum amount needed to sue in federal court, or to transfer the case to a federal court in Texas.

U.S. Circuit Judge Danny Boggs, a Ronald Reagan appointee sitting by appointment from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, rounded out the panel.

Source: Courthouse News Service