• by Colin Kirkland , August 8, 2024

After influencing the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) to discontinue the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM)via a recent lawsuit, X is now choosing to de-prioritize ads on its social-media platform by erasing all ads from the in-app experience for those paying for the Premium+ subscription.

On Thursday, it was announced that GARM would discontinue operations following the antitrust lawsuit filed by X Corp. alleging that GARM conspired to influence advertisers to withhold billions of advertising dollars from the social-media platform.

“No more ads, anywhere on X,” the company posted on Thursday. “Premium+ is now *fully* ad free.”

In theory, Premium+ subscribers, who pay $16 per month, already pay to avoid ads.

According to X, its highest-cost tier consists of “no ads in the For You and Following Timelines,” but has never applied to “promoted content elsewhere on X, including but not limited to ads on profiles, ads in post replies, ads in Immersive Media Viewer, promoted events in Explore, promoted trends, and promoted accounts to follow.”

X has since changed the language of its “ad-free” Premium+ model, stating that subscribers will “enjoy an ad-free experience across most areas of X,” noting that while it attempts to ensure “a smoother and more uninterrupted content experience,” it may still “occasionally” show sponsored content outside of X’s standard ad inventory. 

Since Elon Musk bought X in 2022, when it was known as Twitter, he has made his disapproval of ads clear. At a New York Times event in November, the X owner said “Go fuck yourself” to the social platform’s biggest advertisers. “Don't advertise,” he added in response to major U.S. marketers pulled advertising from X due to an antisemitic post Musk had made.

Earlier this week, X filed a lawsuit against GARM and the WFA, claiming that the coalition violated federal antitrust laws by dissuading leading companies from spending money on X. The suit was accompanied by a video featuring X CEO and former NBCUniversal advertising chief Linda Yaccarino, who said that “no small group of people should be able to monopolize what gets monetized.”

The lawsuit has resulted in the shutdown of GARM.

By decreasing the ad output on the platform, X is staying true to its original goal of trying to sustain the platform on subscription-based revenue. However, while pitching no ads to its users may attract more paying subscribers, less ads may also make it more difficult for creators on the platform to monetize.

Creators on X profit from the company's ad revenue share program, which gives them a cut of ad revenue based on engagement, i.e., ads displayed in their reply streams. Generating more replies has equated to more money for creators, but now there could be less opportunity to profit due to the possible decline in reply ads.