Viva Frei: GARM Disbanding After Being Sued By X & Rumble Is 'An Outright Admission Of Guilt'

On August 8, 2024, Viva Frei @thevivafrei writes:

"IT'S WAR! @rumblevideo sues the @wef's 'Global Alliance for Responsible Media' GARM! And 2 days later, they DISBAND! I wonder why... SHARE AWAY!!!"

Source:
https://x.com/thevivafrei/status/1821714406364844441

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GARM, The So-Called 'Advertising Cartel' Sued By Elon Musk's X And Rumble, Is Shutting Down

The World Federation of Advertisers on Thursday reportedly informed members it would be 'discontinuing' GARM

By William Gavin
Quartz
August 8, 2024

https://qz.com/elon-musk-lawsuit-ad-group-garm-suspend-rumble-1851617006

The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) has reportedly informed its members that it will be "discontinuing" activities for a global initiative, just days after Elon Musk's X sued it on antitrust grounds.

The advertising trade group will shutter its Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), Business Insider reports, citing an email from WFA chief executive officer Stephan Loerke to members Thursday. Loerke told members that the WFA is confident the case's outcome will "demonstrate our full adherence to competition rules in all our activities."

"No small group should be able to monopolize what gets monetized," X CEO Linda Yaccarino wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "This is an important acknowledgment and a necessary step in the right direction. I am hopeful that it means ecosystem-wide reform is coming."

The WFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

X's lawsuit, filed in federal court in Texas on Monday, alleges that the GARM created a conspiracy that saw its members "withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue" from X after Musk purchased the company and rebranded it from Twitter in 2022. The group was concerned that Twitter under Musk would no longer adhere to its established brand-safety standards for advertising on social media, according to the lawsuit.

The non-profit GARM launched in 2019 to create guidelines on hate speech and brand safety. Its voluntary membership spans several agencies and includes companies such as Dell, BP, Electronic Arts, IKEA, Microsoft, and Pepsico, among others. Only a handful of its members are named as defendants in the lawsuit and specifically criticized: CVS Health, Unilever, Orsted, and Mars.

All four companies discontinued or greatly reduced their advertising in late 2022, shortly after Musk's $44 billion purchase of Twitter was completed. The lawsuit says 14 or more additional GARM members stopped purchasing advertising between November and December 2022. Companies that were not GARM members also paused their advertising, including United Airlines and Volkswagen.

As X's new owner, Musk implemented changes that weakened quality control on the platform, including ousting its trust and safety council and removing staffers who worked on content moderation. Many of the advertisers cited an increase in hate speech and misinformation on the social media platform.

X did not immediately adhere to GARM's policies and rules after Musk's takeover, although X reinstated its relationship with GARM in July. Musk also fanned the fires last November at The New York Times DealBook Summit, where he infamously told advertisers to "go f**k themselves" and accused corporations of trying to "blackmail" him with advertising deals. He tried to walk back those comments in June.

X is seeking damages and a permanent injunction against the WFA, citing antitrust laws. Musk on social media called for "any company who has been systematically boycotted by advertisers to file a lawsuit," and suggested — without explaining further — that the group may be criminally liable under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

"We tried being nice for 2 years and got nothing but empty words," Musk added. "Now, it is war."

X was joined in its lawsuit by Rumble, the right-wing video-sharing platform founded by Chris Pavlovski in 2013. Former president Donald Trump's Truth Social joined Rumble's ad platform in August 2022 as its first publisher. In a press release, Rumble called GARM — and its creator, the World Federation of Advertisers — an "advertising cartel."

"Soon a cabal of advertisers and agencies will find out that they can't arbitrarily engineer a boycott of Rumble & X," Pavlovski wrote on X Monday. Pavlovski has accused both Dunkin' and Diageo of "discrimination against Rumble." On Thursday, in response to the WFA's move to discontinue GARM, he asked "What are they hiding?"

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See also:

Free Speech, Censorship, Informed Consent
https://rumble.com/playlists/cZ0hNmhMAOg

Dubious Data, Lies, Corruption, Propaganda, Brainwashing
https://rumble.com/playlists/byFwM-ICr5A