Jaque Silva | SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
The judge overseeing X’s lawsuit against advertisers has recused himself following a news report that showed he owned shares of Tesla.
In a recusal notice dated Aug. 13, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Texas backed out of X’s case against the World Federation of Advertisers, which was filed last week. The judge didn’t say why he was removing himself from the suit.
X, formerly often known as Twitter, is owned by Elon Musk, who can be the CEO and largest shareholder in Tesla. On Monday, NPR reported that O’Connor had owned shares of Tesla in 2022, the date of his last available disclosure, posing a possible conflict of interest.
Calls for comment to the court’s clerk weren’t immediately returned.
In X’s lawsuit, the corporate accused quite a lot of advertisers of engaging in antitrust behavior after they stopped ad campaigns on the location. Corporations named include Unilever, Mars, CVS Healthcare and Orsted in Europe.
In response to the suit, the WFA said it was suspending the operations of its Global Alliance for Responsible Media nonprofit initiative.
The brand new judge assigned to the case, Judge Ed Kinkeade, issued an order on Tuesday that said either party would wish to justify each request to the court to maintain files submitted under seal and out of the general public view.
O’Connor is a former aide to U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and a former federal prosecutor in North Texas. For now, he stays the judge in one other lawsuit filed by X against Media Matters for America, filed in November after the progressive watchdog published a report about Nazi content running on the app next to ads from firms.
WATCH: Tesla faces tough competition in China and slow EV adoption within the U.S.
