Elon Musk’s turbulent leadership at X faces challenges on several fronts. The platform faces a marked drop in user engagement after the election, while a separate legal showdown emerges.

Bernard Arnault, the luxury mogul behind LVMH, is taking legal action against X for alleged copyright infringement involving his newspapers, Le Parisien and Les Echos.

As Europe’s richest individual, Arnault has accused X (formerly Twitter) of content theft, with a complaint filed jointly alongside his French newspapers. The case, co-plained by Le Figaro and Le Monde, claims that X violated new copyright regulations by using their content without obtaining necessary permissions or providing appropriate compensation.

Battle of the billionaires: Arnault pursues

X’s refusal to negotiate with French press publishers, unlike Google and Meta, gave rise to a dispute which will be heard before the Paris court next May. This affair will pit the richest individuals in the world, Arnault and Musk, against each other.

Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH, and Musk have frequently positions traded as the richest men in the world in recent years. Arnault’s net worth has declined by $36 billion this year due to falling demand for luxury goods from Chinese consumers.

Conversely, Musk net worth increased significantly, especially after Donald Trump won the American presidential election. The billionaire, a prominent supporter of the Republican candidate, is expected to occupy a senior position within the administration. His net worth increased by $105.5 billion in 2023.

The legal action initiated by Arnault’s newspapers is a direct consequence of a favorable judgment rendered in May in Paris. The Paris court ordered X to provide commercial data to a group of French publishers, including Télérama, Courrier International and Le Huffington Post, within two months.

Arnault and Musk face off in court

Newspapers accused the controversial social media platform of failing to comply with the court’s ruling, highlighting its continued tendency to shirk legal responsibilities.

“The income from these rights, with the investment that they would allow their beneficiaries, are an asset for the plurality, independence and quality of the media, essential to freedom of expression and the right to information in our democratic society,” the group said.

A European directive enacted in 2019 grants news organizations, including newspapers, magazines and news agencies, the right to receive remuneration when digital platforms reuse their content.

Musk’s X should do everything possible to postpone Arnault’s trial. In the meantime, a quieter rebellion is brewing as users log out of X and don’t look back.

The Post-Election Plunge of X Users

Musk may have helped lead Trump to victory in the US presidential election, but one of his companies is now struggling with post-election losses. Although Similar website.

The company has been tracking user deactivations on X since Musk’s takeover. David Carr, editor at Similarweb, said Quartz this Wednesday was “the biggest release we’ve seen in the last two years.” On November 6, more than 115,000 US-based web visitors deactivated their X accounts.

The ‘X’odus: Data Reveals X’s Biggest Release Day Ever

Similarweb said this was “more than any previous day of Elon Musk’s tenure, during which many users who disagreed with his policies or style threatened to leave the service.” On the same day, X set a new traffic record in the United States with 46.5 million visits, a 38% increase over the recent average.

Similarweb collected the data by monitoring visits to a confirmation page on X’s website, which is displayed when a user confirms account deactivation. It is important to note that Similarweb does not track opt-outs initiated through the mobile app.