X Sues Global Alliance for Responsible Media over ‘Illegal Boycott’

Peter D'Abrosca
Linda Yaccarino Madrazo

Linda Yaccarino, the chief executive officer of Elon Musk-owned X, announced Tuesday that the company is filing a lawsuit against a group called Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM).

“After a career in media and advertising, I thought I had seen everything. Then I read the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee’s report entitled ‘GARM’s (Global Alliance for Responsible Media) Harm’ last month. The report disclosed that their investigation had found evidence of an illegal boycott against many companies, including X,” Yaccarino said.

“The consequence – perhaps the intent – of this boycott was to seek to deprive X’s users, be they sports fans, gamers, journalists, activists, parents or political and corporate leaders, of the Global Town Square,” she continued. “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.”

The House Judiciary Committee report referenced by Yaccarino lays out the legal framework for the case against GARM.

“Section 1 of the Sherman Act makes unreasonable restraints of trade illegal.15 Included in these illegal restraints are certain group boycotts and coordinated actions that harm consumers,” the report says. “Documents produced to the Committee suggest that GARM may have engaged in coordinated conduct that violates Section 1. GARM has undertaken various actions to eliminate the monetization, and in effect existence, of certain voices online.”

The report provided several examples of such misgivings against Twitter and other companies that platformed “right-wing” ideologies:

According to one GARM member, GARM recommended that its members ‘stop all paid advertisement’ on Twitter in response to Mr. Musk’s acquisition of the company.17 GARM’s internal documents show that GARM was asked by a member to ‘arrange a meeting and hear more about [GARM’s] perspectives about the Twitter situation and a possible boycott from many companies.’ GARM also held ‘extensive debriefing and discussion around Elon Musks’ [sic] takeover of Twitter,’ providing ample opportunity for the boycott to be organized. GARM bragged about ‘taking on Elon Musk’ and ‘[s]ince then [Twitter was] 80% below revenue forecasts[.]’

The lawsuit also names the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and GARM members CVS Health, Mars, Orsted, and Unilever; and claims that GARM’s coordinated actions cost the company billions of dollars in advertising revenue.

Allegations of the organization’s sizable role in shaping both advertising and editorial content across the nation and the globe was detailed by the free speech group Foundation for Freedom Online (FFO) in a recent report.

“Influential ad agencies are not only reacting to, but actively driving censorship through the imposition of stringent ‘brand safety standards,'” FFO reported.

The free speech foundation noted a strategy, of which GARM was a part, was developed in less than ten years, and uses public boycotts and blacklists to force publishers to comply within a standard of ‘acceptable’ speech.

“Tactically leveraging economic influence to shape digital discourse has been a critical component of censorship efforts for years,” FFO reported.

X executive Yaccarino said, “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.”

X owner Elon Musk chimed in on the platform.

“We tried peace for 2 years, now it is war,” he said.

He followed that post with another imploring similarly impacted companies to file their own lawsuits.

“I strongly encourage any company who has been systematically boycotted by advertisers to file a lawsuit,” he said. “There may also be criminal liability via the RICO Act.”

GARM did not return a comment request.

Read the full court filing here.

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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter.
Photo “Linda Yaccarino Madrazo” by Linda Yaccarino Madrazo. 

 

 

 

 

 

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