Big news on Thursday: The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) announced that it will cease operations of its Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) initiative in lightweight of the antitrust lawsuit filed against the companies by Elon Musk. On Tuesday, Musk announced Lawsuit filed in federal court in the Northern District of Texas against GARM and WFA.
His company filed a federal lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), targeting its members CVS Health, Mars, Orsted, Unilever and the industry association behind it, the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA). GARM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Managing Director Linda Yaccarino announced the lawsuit in an open letter to advertisers, saying it was “not a decision we made lightly, but rather a direct result of their actions.”
The lawsuit was followed by a 39-page House report in July outlining the harm caused by GARM. The House Judiciary Committee shared Thursday’s announcement on its Twitter/X account.
#BREAK: The “Global Alliance for Responsible Media” is being discontinued.
Big victory for the First Amendment to the Constitution.
Big win for the regulator.
– Republican House Judiciary Caucus 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) 8 August 2024
Related: Social media censorship is very real and Jonathan Turley has the receipts
Elon Musk prepares for legal battle after Ben Shapiro exposes GARM censorship in congressional testimony
As Brandon Morse reported following Ben Shapiro’s testimony to Congress in the Daily Wire in July:
As Shapiro said during his TranscriptMuch of this is focused on two fronts. First, right-wing websites like RedState or Daily Wire are censored and silenced so that the information they present is not seen by the general public. They are often labeled as sites that contain “misinformation” or “disinformation,” or, as Shapiro prefers to call it, “insensitive,” “irresponsible,” and “harmful” treatment of “debated sensitive social issues.”
Then, of course, there were the Democrats’ attempts to force social media sites to suppress posts and stories that could harm the narrative of the Democratic Party. Anything that challenged or disrupted the narrative they were promoting should be punished, or, as some Democrats threatened, the social media sites would be punished.
Here is more to decide to stop the initiative.
Stephan Loerke, CEO of the WFA, wrote in an email to members seen by Business Insider that the decision was “not taken lightly” but that GARM is a nonprofit with constrained resources.
Loerke said the WFA and GARM intend to challenge the allegations in X’s lawsuit in court and that they are confident the outcome of the case “will demonstrate that we fully comply with competition rules in all our activities.”
And here is the reason for Musk’s lawsuit:
X’s lawsuit alleged that GARM convinced top brands not to advertise on X after Musk acquired Twitter in 2022.
Twitter’s advertising revenues fell sharply after Musk’s takeover. Major advertisers left the platform after the change of ownership. Musk had laid off huge numbers of sales and security employees and brought previously blocked accounts back onto the platform.
Before we get too excited, though, we should be aware that the fact that GARM is closing doesn’t mean the motivation behind its creation is gone. Musk – and all of us – must remain vigilant and resist any similar efforts to suppress speech that runs counter to the preferred narrative.
