New Attack On GARM Comes From Elon Musk, Who Takes Brand Safety Tools To Court.

Conservative podcasters have been complaining that the standards set by the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) are intentionally keeping them off of advertising buys, and now Elon Musk is leading a legal challenge against the World Federation of Advertisers, which created GARM. 

“We tried being nice for two years and got nothing but empty words,” Musk said in a post on X. “Now, it is war.”

The suit alleges GARM “conspired” with leading brands, including CVS, Unilever, Mars, and Orsted, to withhold “billions” of dollars in advertising revenue from the social media company. The suit alleges 18 advertisers that are members of GARM stopped using X/Twitter, while dozens of others cut spending by 70% or more. 

“As a condition of GARM membership, GARM’s members agree to adopt, implement and enforce GARM’s brand safety standards, including by withholding advertising from social media platforms deemed by GARM to be non-compliant with the brand safety standards,” says the complaint filed in federal court in Wichita Falls, TX on Tuesday (Aug. 6). “Concerned that Twitter might deviate from certain brand safety standards for advertising on social media platforms set through GARM, the conspirators collectively acted to enforce Twitter’s adherence to those standards through the boycott,,” it alleges. 

CEO Linda Yaccarino said in an open letter to advertisers that the lawsuit was a result of an investigation by the House Judiciary Committee, which last month released a report that said it had uncovered some emails that seem to provide evidence to the fears of conservative media that are being redlined. 

Committee Chair Jim Jordan last week sent letters to several major advertisers asking the companies to provide details about their roles in GARM and whether they participated in any “collective boycotts” with GARM or other advertisers that some lawmakers believe violate federal antitrust laws. Jordan also asks whether the companies were “aware of the coordinated actions taken by GARM toward news outlets and podcasts such as The Joe Rogan Experience, The Daily Wire, Breitbart News, or Fox News, or other conservative media.”

Joining the lawsuit is the video platform Rumble, a favorite of many conservative content creators like Dan Bongino, who jumped to Rumble in 2022, as well as Barstool Sports, which distributes videos of its podcast on the site. In its filing, Rumble named as defendants the World Federation of Advertisers, as well as the advertising agency WPP and its subsidiary GroupM Worldwide.

“The brand safety standards set by advertisers and their ad agencies should succeed or fail in the marketplace on their own merits and not through the coercive exercise of market power,” Rumble’s complaint reads. “All of this illegal conduct is done at the expense of platforms, content creators, and their users, as well as the agencies’ own advertiser clients who pay more for ads as a result of their collusion.”

WFA and GARM have not yet responded to the lawsuit but has previously called the Congressional allegations of anti-competitive behavior “unfounded” and said that membership in GARM is “entirely voluntary.” 

“Membership of GARM is entirely voluntary. Its frameworks and tools are intentionally broad, and individual companies are free to review, adopt, modify, or reject them, as they see fit,” spokesman Will Gilroy said. “GARM is not involved in operational steps relative to monetization eligibility, content ratings, platform assessments or media investment decisions. The decision where and when to advertise is always down to the individual advertiser, in collaboration with their agency partners where relevant.”

GARM was launched at Cannes by the Brussels-based World Federation of Advertisers in 2019 in the wake of the New Zealand mosque shooting in which the killer livestreamed the attacks on Facebook.