McMillian v. X Corp.

Case Number: 3:23-cv-03461

Court: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

Client: Jacob Silverman

Motion to Intervene and Unseal Filed: July 9, 2024

Background: Ever since billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk bought Twitter (now X) in 2022 and took the company private, there have been questions about which individuals and entities have a financial stake in the company. That issue was raised in a lawsuit filed by former Twitter employees alleging that the fiduciaries responsible for Twitter’s severance plan failed to provide certain benefits to participants after Musk’s purchase of the company. 

As part of the litigation, now before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, X Corp. filed a corporate disclosure statement that stated that “X Corp. is wholly owned by X Holdings Corp.” and that “[n]o publicly held corporation owns 10% or more of X Corp.’s or X Holdings Corp.’s stock.” The statement did not otherwise identify the individuals or entities with a financial interest at stake in the case.

After the former employee plaintiffs asked the court to order X Corp. to disclose that information, the company filed it under seal, making it available to them but not to the general public. 

On behalf of journalist Jacob Silverman, who has written about Musk and his takeover of Twitter, attorneys from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a motion to intervene in the case for the limited purpose of unsealing the disclosure statement. Silverman argues that the First Amendment and common law require public access to corporate disclosure statements, and that there is a strong public interest in understanding the financial interests that shape free expression on one of the world’s most used social media platforms. 

Quote: “The keen public interest in the information in question only underlines that [X Corp.] cannot justify secrecy here. … [T]he possible influence of a social media platform’s ownership on its content and privacy practices is a subject of recurring — and legitimate — public controversy, as Musk’s own explanations for acquiring Twitter highlight.” 

Related: On behalf of Silverman, Reporters Committee attorneys filed a similar motion to intervene and unseal the same information in Anoke v. X Corp., a companion case also being heard by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Filings:
2024-07-09: Motion to intervene and unseal judicial records