All My Lawsuits Live in Texas
George Strait famously sang that all his ex's live in Texas, which is why he hangs his hat in Tennessee. X appears to have taken the song to heart, from the other direction. Whatever your dispute with the platform, and wherever you happen to live, X would like it settled in Texas.
On September 9, X announced updated Terms of Service, and every user will have to accept them to keep using the app. Most people will tap through without reading a word. That is a shame, because this update is less about new features than about what happens when something goes wrong. Three changes in the fine print will shape any fight you ever have with the platform.
Your dispute now belongs in Texas
The updated terms provide that legal disputes with X will be handled in Texas courts under Texas law. X now sits inside SpaceX, which is based in Texas, and the terms bring the litigation home with it.
For most users, that is not a technicality. If X suspends your account, mishandles your data, or refuses to remove content that is ruining your business, your lawsuit no longer belongs in a courthouse near you. It belongs in Texas, under Texas rules, which usually means hiring Texas counsel and litigating a long way from home. Companies understand that distance and cost discourage claims before they are ever filed. A forum clause is often worth more to a defendant than any argument on the merits.
No jury, and no class
The second change is the one X described in its own summary of the update, and it deserves to be read slowly:
"Class action and jury trial waiver: Where permitted by law, we've updated our Terms to state that you and X waive the right to a jury trial, and, as in our prior Terms, you and X waive the right to bring or join a class, collective, or other representative action against the other. This applies to all users and, to the extent permitted by law, also covers our corporate affiliates."
Two things stand out. First, the jury trial waiver is new in this explicit form. Companies often push disputes into private arbitration, where there is no jury. X is doing something less common: keeping disputes in court but taking the jury out of the courtroom, so a judge alone decides the facts. Second, the class action waiver, which the prior terms already contained, means you cannot band together with other users who were harmed the same way. Most individual claims against a platform are too small to justify a lawsuit on their own. A class waiver does not just change procedure. In practice, it decides whether many claims get brought at all.
The words "where permitted by law" are doing real work in that paragraph. Some states restrict jury waivers in consumer contracts, and consumer protection law in the European Union and the United Kingdom may make parts of this unenforceable there. Expect regulators and courts to test these clauses. But unless and until one does, the terms you accepted say what they say.
Your AI agent's actions are your problem
The third change is quieter. The terms now clarify that you are responsible for how you use the service, "including features that perform autonomous actions on your behalf." As platforms roll out agents and bots that post, reply, and transact for you, that sentence matters. If your automated tool spams, infringes, defames, or breaks the law, X's position is that the conduct belongs to you, not to the platform that supplied the tool.
Why now
Timing is rarely an accident in documents like this. X is currently defending a proposed class action filed in September 2026 by plaintiffs who allege that its Grok chatbot generated sexualized images of them as minors. Those are allegations, not findings, and new terms do not rewrite a case that is already filed. But companies rewrite their contracts with the last lawsuit in mind and the next one in view. These terms are written for the next one.
What this means for you
If you keep using X, you are accepting these terms, including the dispute provisions. If your business depends on the platform, read the dispute section now rather than after a problem. And if you ever do have a claim worth bringing, understand what you agreed to: Texas courts, Texas law, a judge instead of a jury, and your claim standing alone.
Full disclosure: I am licensed to practice in Texas, so this clause reads a little differently to me than it may to you. Most users will experience it as a barrier. It is worth knowing it is there before you need to find out. Strait avoided Texas because of his ex's. If you end up in a fight with this X, you will not have that option.
Gabriel Vincent Tese is an attorney with Spector Gadon Rosen Vinci P.C. in Philadelphia focused on cyber litigation and technology law. He can be reached at gtese@sgrvlaw.com.
This post is general information, not legal advice. For advice about your specific situation, consult an attorney.