The latest lawsuit and riot words made by Elon Musk have caused more advertisers to leave X.

An important voice in the advertising industry has said that Elon Musk’s antitrust case against brands that have boycotted X and his controversial actions on the platform during the recent UK riots will make marketers even less comfortable with the site.

Elon Musk’s X, which used to be Twitter, sued a marketing trade group and several big companies, such as Unilever and Mars, on Tuesday for what it called an “illegal boycott” on the platform, which it said broke competition laws.

In a post by CEO Linda Yaccarino, the company said it was suing Unilever, Mars, and the Global Alliance for Responsible Media. The latter is a group of ad agencies and marketers who promise to run ads in a way that doesn’t support “illegal or harmful content.”

Bosses in the media industry told City A.M. that the move, which was called “ego-driven,” “cult-like,” and “insane,” is not likely to scare brands into submission. Instead, they said it would likely make brands even less interested in the ad-dependent site.

A media and marketing firm founder named Alex Tait, who used to be in charge of Unilever’s ad spending, said, “Musk’s lawsuit is probably driven by his ego rather than commercial logic.”

“The idea that X is like a “town square” comes from a view of the First Amendment that is focused on the US and doesn’t work in other countries.” It goes against what marketers call “brand safety,” which means making sure that their ads don’t show up next to content that isn’t proper for their brands.

Unfortunately, Advertising X’s main way to promote has been in a few high-profile fights with the companies that it depends on. Advertisers have been leaving the site because they don’t want their brand to show up next to offensive or inappropriate material.

In an interview last year, Elon Musk told marketers that had left the site to “go fuck yourself.”

At Enders Analysis, Joseph Teaside, head of tech, said, “Advertisers just don’t want the drama…”

“A lot of them have already left because X is now full of bots, racists, and pornography since Musk took over.” Some marketers have stayed or come back because the CPMs are low, but scandal after scandal is making big companies decide it’s not worth the trouble.

Alex Wilson, a senior strategist at the London agency Pitch, told City A.M. that Twitter used to be a good way for brands to get involved in the biggest conversations, but now that it’s not regulated, it’s hard for him to get his clients to spend money on the site.

It’s a mess on the verification system, half of your friends are now sexbots, the most interesting people have moved on to other things, the people who are still there are sharing less, and your timeline is just a never-ending stream of bad news.

“What’s the point of promotion on that kind of platform?”

Advertisers in the UK had even worse feelings about Musk after what he did online about the riots. Since the trouble started, the founder of Tesla has called Keir Starmer “two-tier Keir,” a reference to two-tier police, and has talked directly with Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, the founder of the English Defense League, also known as Tommy Robinson. Earlier this week, he restored Robinson’s account.

A message on WhatsApp between employees at one of the biggest ad companies in the world that City A.M. saw said, “The lawsuit and Elon’s comments on the recent riots…” It’s crazy that any brand would even think about going near it.

Tait also said, “The position that Twitter is thought to have played in the restlessness we’ve seen over the last week is likely to make advertisers in the UK even more worried about the platform.”

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