Clickmen
Former CNN star presenter Don Lemon has sued multi-billionaire Elon Musk and his social media firm X, previously often called Twitter, over the cancellation of a chat present deal.
The lawsuit alleges that Mr Musk and his firm unfairly terminated a partnership with Mr Lemon and refused to pay him after utilizing his identify to advertise the social media platform with advertisers.
Daily News News has contacted X for remark in regards to the lawsuit.
Earlier this 12 months, X reached offers with Mr Lemon, former US congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and sports activities radio presenter Jim Rome, because it tries to carry advertisers again to the platform after a sequence of controversies.
“The lawsuit alleges fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and misappropriation of name and likeness,” mentioned a submit on the Facebook web page of the legislation agency representing Mr Lemon, Shegerian & Associates.
The submitting with the California Superior Court in San Francisco alleged X had agreed to pay Mr Lemon $1.5m (£881,000), together with a share of promoting income generated by his content material.
It additionally claims Mr Musk and X used “false promises and representations” to help persuade Mr Lemon to agree to the partnership only to cancel it after he had spent thousands of dollars on creating the show.
However, the deal which would have seen The Don Lemon Show appearing on X collapsed abruptly in March after the recording of the first episode, which featured an interview with Mr Musk.
In a post on X shortly after the deal fell through, Mr Musk said Mr Lemon’s approach “was basically just ‘CNN, but on social media,’ which doesn’t work, as evidenced by the fact that CNN is dying.”
During the interview, which was recorded at Tesla’s headquarters in Texas, Mr Lemon asked Mr Musk about his use of the drug ketamine, as well as the increase of hate speech on X.
Mr Lemon had been with CNN for 17 years when he was fired in April 2023.
The network made the decision after Mr Lemon made on-air comments about then Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley being past her prime.
Shortly after Mr Lemon’s exit from CNN, Mr Musk reached out to him on X.
At the time, Mr Musk was looking to attract advertisers back to the social media platform, which was reeling from a string of controversies that followed the billionaire’s takeover in 2022.
In October, X chief executive Linda Yaccarino announced a partnership deal with celebrity socialite Paris Hilton.
The following month, Ms Hilton pulled an advertising campaign on X by her entertainment company 11:11 Media.
The departure of Ms Hilton’s agency added to the checklist of advertisers that had minimize ties with X over considerations in regards to the platform’s content material moderation insurance policies.
