Global Alliance for Responsible Media ‘discontinuing’ activities after antitrust lawsuit of Musk’s X

MANILA, Philippines – Advertising trade group World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) said on Thursday, August 8, it was “discontinuing” activities under its Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) initiative.

The discontinuation of the initiative comes after Elon Musk and social media platform X filed an antitrust lawsuit against them, accusing the advertising alliance and GARM members Unilever, Mars, CVS, and Ørsted of unlawfully conspiring to boycott X. The suit alleges GARM persuaded brands to not invest advertising in X following Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in 2022.

A Business Insider report on Thursday cited an email of WFA CEO Stephan Loerke to members that the decision was “not made lightly” but was done as the GARM initiative was not-for-profit and had limited resources.

GARM is an initiative made in 2019 that aimed to create frameworks to provide common definitions for its members for things like hate speech, brand safety, and misinformation and disinformation. Business Insider added in its report that “the uptake of these frameworks was voluntary – they don’t name or rank any specific platforms – and GARM’s role wasn’t to advise marketers on where to spend their budgets.”

The Verge, in its report, meanwhile pointed out that Musk has been previously hostile to advertisers who disagreed with him. In an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin in November 2023, Musk said: “I hope they stop. Don’t advertise.”

He added: “If somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.”

Loerke meanwhile said the WFA and GARM were confident that, in contesting the suit, the case’s outcome would “demonstrate our full adherence to competition rules in all our activities.” That said, the suit would deprive the initiative of operating resources, which is likely the point. – Rappler.com