(PM.) Trump-backed social media company Truth Social launched a defamation suit on Monday against 20 social media companies. Plaintiff Trump Media & Technology Group Corp sued The Guardian, Hollywood Reporter, the Miami Herald, Reuters, Rolling Stone, The Hill, Deadline, Benzinga, Marketwatch, Forbes, Axios, The Daily Beast, Gizmodo, Salon, The New York Daily News, Newsweek, MSNBC, Mediaite, The Daily Mail, and CNBC.
The suit claims that the number was “an utter fabrication,” and that each defendant, “in apparent coordination,” published that number within 24 hours of one another. The outlets, the suit claims, all sourced an SEC filing, but that $73 million loss amount is not contained in the cited filing.
Truth Social alleges that this was “a coordinated effort” to damage the company’s reputation and hinder an anticipated merger. “All defendants ran nearly identical headlines that reported some variation of ‘Trump’s Truth Social’ having lost ‘$73 million,'” the suit contends.
The alleged defamation, the suit states, “deeply harmed” Truth Social as it had the effect of “eroding faith in the copmany’s operations and management,” and made it “more difficult” for the company to raise additional funds while the anticipated merger is pending with the SEC.
