A lawyer from Elon Musk's X has threatened companies into advertisements, The Wall Street Journal reported this week.
And social media users were unnerved by the report.
In December, a lawyer at the advertising company Interpublic Group received a call from X.
"The message was clear, according to several people with knowledge of the conversation: Get your clients to spend more on Elon Musk’s social-media platform, or else," the Journal reported.
ALSO READ: Behind the memo that hijacked American democracy
Even supporters of President Donald Trump expressed concern.
"Truly disturbing report in the WSJ," pro-Trump author Batya Ungar-Sargon wrote on X. "Lawyers at Twitter are threatening advertisers to spend more money on X 'or else' X owner Elon Musk will leverage his close relationship with Trump to torpedo mergers. This goes beyond a conflict of interest. It's straight-up extortion."
"If a M*GA shill like Batya is tweeting this, oboy lil wooden Elonocchio is due for comeuppance, & Tr*mp too — God willing," said social media chief Jeffrey Newelt from Zappa Records.
"Are you surprised? Trump is a mafia kingpin. Republicans are subservient because they’re afraid of violence," Tony Annett, a former IMF speechwriter, said on X.
"As I’ve noted before, what Musk has never understood is that the product of a social media app isn’t the platform itself, but its users. You need high-value users—even if they are grating to the point of being unbearable—if you want high-value advertisers," posted investigative reporter Will Bredderman.
"These dudes are straight up thug criminals." wrote columnist and author Sophia A. Nelson.
Vox politics reporter Andrew Prokop asked, "Is the Trump Admin committed to tough antitrust enforcement due to the policy merits of the idea? Or do they view it as a useful tool with which they can conduct shakedowns?"
Kennesaw State University political science Professor Jeff DeWitt posted a quote from Benito Mussolini: "Fascism should be more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power."
