The Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) has decided to “discontinue activities” following a lawsuit filed against them by Elon Musk’s X platform and Rumble. The lawsuit accused GARM of antitrust violations, alleging that the group orchestrated ad boycotts against both platforms through its monopolistic control over advertising.
The House Judiciary Committee called this development a “big win for the First Amendment” and “a big win for oversight.” The committee had previously raised concerns about GARM’s monopolistic influence on advertisers and its potential to stifle online speech by controlling ad placements.
Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski, who has been vocal about the ad boycott targeting his platform, questioned GARM’s transparency, asking, “What are they hiding?”
The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), which organized GARM to regulate online speech through ad placements, plans to contest the allegations of boycotting and censorship. In an email to WFA members on Thursday, the group stated that the decision to halt GARM’s activities was “not made lightly,” but they expressed confidence that the lawsuit would prove their compliance with competition laws.
In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Pavlovski explained, “What the World Federation of Advertisers has done is they created a monopoly to basically tell all these advertisers how they should spend money based on certain speech.” This, he said, was the basis for launching the lawsuit.
X CEO Linda Yaccarino, responding to the lawsuit on the platform, stated, “I was shocked by the evidence uncovered by the House Judiciary Committee that a group of companies organized a systematic illegal boycott against X. It is just wrong. And that is why we are taking action.” She announced an antitrust lawsuit against GARM, four of its key members, and the World Federation of Advertisers.
“We tried peace for two years,” said X owner Elon Musk. “Now it’s war.”
In 2022, GARM expanded its influence in the advertising industry. The group announced that it had opened its membership to independent brand safety solutions providers, in addition to advertisers, media agencies, media platforms, and industry associations. This expansion aimed to eliminate ad support for harmful content on digital platforms. GARM had previously collaborated with various ad tech companies on its Brand Safety Floor and Suitability Framework, which began in May 2020. However, the structure GARM established is now under scrutiny, as it appears to have facilitated boycotts against platforms that do not align with their undefined standards of “harmful content.”