On Tuesday, Elon Musk’s X filed an antitrust lawsuit in Texas federal court against a far-left advertising cartel and several member companies, seeking trebled compensatory damages and injunctive relief.
The lawsuit claims that X was targeted by an illegal ad boycott.
The lawsuit names the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), its parent company, the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), and GARM members CVS Health, Mars, Orsted, and Unilever, which reportedly controls 90% of global marketing efforts.
X CEO Linda Yaccarino posted a message to users on X, following the announcement of the lawsuit.
Watch:
A Message to X Users pic.twitter.com/6bZOYPhWVa
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) August 6, 2024
She also shared an open letter to advertisers. Here’s an excerpt:
To put it simply, people are hurt when the marketplace of ideas is undermined and some viewpoints are not funded over others as part of an illegal boycott.
This behavior is a stain on a great industry, and cannot be allowed to continue.
…
To those who broke the law, we say enough is enough. We are compelled to seek justice for the harm that has been done by these and potentially additional defendants, depending what the legal process reveals.
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) August 6, 2024
In response to the lawsuit, the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) announced that it would be discontinuing its Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) initiative.
BREAKING: The World Federation of Advertisers has shut down the GARM project after Elon Musk’s 𝕏 and Rumble filed lawsuits against them over an ad boycott. pic.twitter.com/bsrYx09h5O
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) August 8, 2024
Musk’s lawsuit, filed in federal court in the Northern District of Texas, followed a 39-page House report released in July that outlined the harms caused by GARM. The House Judiciary Committee shared this update on its Twitter/X account on Thursday.
#BREAKING: The “Global Alliance for Responsible Media” is discontinuing.
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) August 8, 2024
Big win for the First Amendment.
Big win for oversight.
The GOP congressional report exposed a vast advertising monopoly that has dominated the global market, forcing companies to comply with top-down censorship, particularly aimed at suppressing conservative voices by cutting off their revenue streams.
Shortly after Musk’s announcement, Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski announced that he was joining Musk in the lawsuit against the GARM cartel.
On Thursday, the World Federation for Advertisers confirmed that they would be discontinuing GARM.
Digital Information World reported:
Elon Musk is getting more success after his decision to sue Ad Advisory Group GARM has led to a positive outcome.
The World Federation for Advertisers just confirmed that they would be discontinuing GARM, which Musk tried to boycott ads on the app. This news came in a post by the WFA which highlighted that the decision was not easy.
They claim that the incident would be further evaluated and would continue in court. However, for the time being, they are suspending all activities linked to GARM. In the end, the WFA says it’s confident that it would beat out X any day as the entity complies with competition rules but for now, this is the course of action.
So while the WFA would still fight the lawsuit and accusations that X made, it’s discontinuing GARM temporarily.
