This move comes in the wake of a lawsuit filed against them by Elon Musk's X and the Rumble platform. The group had been accused of orchestrating ad boycotts against both platforms, leveraging their monopoly to do so.
According to The Post Millennial, the House Judiciary Committee hailed this development as a "Big win for the First Amendment" and a "Big win for oversight." The committee had previously raised concerns about GARM's monopoly over advertisers and their alleged manipulation of this monopoly to influence online speech.
August 09, 2024
Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski has been vocal about the ad boycott against his platform, questioning GARM's motives by asking, "what are they hiding?" Meanwhile, the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), the organization behind GARM's formation, has expressed its intention to contest the allegations of boycotting and censorship. They maintain that their actions are in compliance with the law.
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The decision to discontinue GARM's activities was communicated to WFA members via email on Thursday. The email stated that the decision was "not made lightly," and expressed confidence that the pending case "will demonstrate our full adherence to competition rules in all our activities."
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August 09, 2024
In an interview with Fox, Pavlovski shed light on the lawsuit, stating, "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 explained, was the reason for the lawsuit.
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Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, expressed her shock at the evidence uncovered by the House Judiciary Committee. She said, "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 subsequently announced an anti-trust lawsuit against GARM, "four of its key members and the World Federation of Advertisers."
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Elon Musk, the owner of X, expressed his resolve, stating, "We tried peace for two years, now it's war."
In 2022, GARM had expanded its influence in the ad marketplace, opening its membership to independent brand safety solutions providers, in addition to advertisers, media agencies, media platforms, and industry associations. The group stated, "This is a significant expansion for the cross-industry initiative, which aims to eliminate ad support for harmful content on digital media platforms."
However, the group's definition of "harmful content" remains unclear, raising questions about the criteria used to justify their ad boycotts. This lack of clarity, coupled with the recent lawsuit, has cast a shadow over GARM's future activities and their impact on free speech and fair competition in the digital advertising space.
