Following a report released by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee alleging that the ad industry's Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) violated U.S. antitrust laws by censoring conservative voices online, X owner Elon Musk says his social media company “has no choice” but to sue GARM for a recent advertiser boycott.
“Hopefully, some states will consider criminal prosecution,” reads Musk’s recent post directed at what he and Ben Shapiro, who appeared before Congress last week, believe to be a “cartel” of left-leaning advertisers who account for the vast majority of ad spending in the U.S.
The report accuses GARM of colluding to cut ad revenue to X and attempting to “silence disfavored voices” such as podcast host Joe Rogan, and collectively going after “disfavored” right-wing news sites.
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“If you're not getting ad dollars from GARM members, it's nearly impossible to run an ad-based business,” Shapiro said. “And if you're not following their preferred political narratives, you will not be deemed brand safe.”
Shapiro, as well as Musk, take issue with GARM's brand safety policies, which aim to ensure ads “are not being placed next to, or inadvertently funding, content which could be harmful to individuals or society,” claiming that the organization's criteria are “highly subjective in theory” and “purely partisan in practice.”
Musk is planning to take legal action against GARM for allegedly coordinating an effort to restrict free speech on X by working alongside the advertisers who boycotted the app after the billionaire took over in 2022.
Ironically, X rejoined GARM a week before The House Judiciary Committee made its case to Congress, announcing that it was excited to reinstate its relationship with the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and is “committed to the safety of our global town square and proud to be part of the GARM community.”
After Musk took over what was then known as Twitter, X fell out with GARM after the majority of the company's content-moderation team was slashed, which led to an onslaught of harmful content appearing alongside advertisers’ promotions and drove away major advertising partners.
Media Matters for America reported last year that ads for brands such as Apple, Bravo, IBM and Oracle were being placed beside pro-Nazi posts on X, while the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which X is reviving lawsuits against, reported that the company allowed racist, homophobic and antisemitic comments to remain online.
By the start of 2024, X had lost over 71% of its value since Musk's takeover. It has not recovered its ad business, and ad revenue is down 50%, according to a recent report by Bloomberg.
With his threat to sue, Musk is not focused on individual ad partners who deserted the platform, but the concept of censoring free speech by major organizations like GARM, which may be more difficult to prosecute.
The focus on GARM turns the spotlight away from Musk's role in spreading harmful, discredited and offensive messages on X. By directly posting and reposting anti-trans and antisemitic rhetoric, or calling the media “a pure propagandist machine” while suggesting that the recent assassination attempt against Donald Trump was being downplayed to his millions of followers, Musk continues to drive ad partners away from the platform -- and brands from spending money on X.
The "Center for Countering Digital Hate" is a scam group run by foreign money to undermine American stability and free speech. They are an enemy of the State, and anyone who cites them unironically is either ill-informed or duplicitous. GARM needs to go down in flames as well, and probably will.
Why do the editors of MediaPost allow a "news" report (it is not labeled as commentary) in which the headline and bulk of the article give a relatively balanced report on an event, and then allow the reporter (Mr. Kirkland) to tack on an blatant editorial in the last paragraph, full of subjectivity and pure opinion revealing how much he hates X? Whatever you may think of X and Elon Musk, this is precisely why the news media has lost so much credibility.
Hold on a second. GARM is focused on pointing out hate speech that advertisers do not want to be associated with. It is a provable fact that since Musk took over X, hate speech and misinformation has proliferated on the site. Elon Musk does not want this to be pointed out so he attacks the messenger, GARM. So like Peter Theil did to GAWKER, Musk, using his deep pockets, will go after anyone who calls out his platform. This is dangerous. And I totally agree with the last paragraph of the article. Kirkland calling out Musk is PRECISELY what a good journalist should be doing.