In the end, the continued operation of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) had become too much of a distraction for the World Federation of Advertising. The Brussels-based organization said Friday that increasing attacks on the ad-buying standards from conservative media outlets and lawmakers in Washington left it little choice other than to discontinue GARM activities.
“GARM is a small, not-for-profit initiative, and recent allegations that unfortunately misconstrue its purpose and activities have caused a distraction and significantly drained its resources and finances. GARM therefore is making the difficult decision to discontinue its activities,” the organization said in a statement.
Since its launch in 2019 to address digital safety following the New Zealand mosque shooting that was livestreamed on Facebook, the World Federation of Advertising says GARM standards “enhanced transparency” in ad placements by providing “voluntary and pro-competitive” tools for the advertising industry. In the past five years, the Federation credits GARM with helping to reduce ads inadvertently supporting harmful and illegal content. In 2020, it says 6.1% of ads were associated with such content, but last year the rate had fallen to 1.7%.
The decision to shutter GARM came a week after more than 40 advertisers, including such major spenders as McDonald’s, General Motors, PepsiCo and Verizon, were sent letters from the House Judiciary Committee as part of its ongoing investigation into the use of GARM.
In the letter, Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) asked 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.”
The House Judiciary last month released a report that said it had uncovered some emails that seem to provide evidence that conservative media were being redlined. In some of the emails, GARM leadership and its Steer Team members discuss how to target conservative media. According to the report, GARM leader and co-founder Rob Rakowitz also regularly directs GARM members to use exclusion and inclusion lists from “trusted partners” like NewsGuard and GDI to “continue to give a leg up to professional news outlets.”
The decision also comes just days after Elon Musk’s X/Twitter and Rumble both filed federal antitrust lawsuits against the World Federation of Advertisers, alleging they “conspired” with leading brands to withhold “billions” of dollars in advertising revenue from right-leaning media outlets.
But supporters say GARM was “apolitical” and its membership entirely voluntary, with GARM members free to use voluntary industry standards and implement practices and solutions in a way that makes sense for them. The organization’s website also said that, critically, GARM was not involved in the decisions relating to the allocation of budgets. Instead, it said that GARM focused on creating a voluntary framework that can be used by individual advertisers to place their buys in alignment with their own goals and values.
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