Summarised by Centrist
Elon Musk’s social media platform, X (formerly Twitter), and Rumble filed a federal lawsuit in Texas against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) and several major corporations, including Unilever, CVS, and Mars, accusing them of antitrust violations.
GARM has now folded.
The lawsuit alleged that GARM orchestrated an illegal advertiser boycott, costing X billions in revenue since Musk’s $44b acquisition. The suit claimed GARM’s “brand safety” standards were used to pressure advertisers into boycotting X, particularly targeting conservative media, as highlighted in a July report by the US House Judiciary Committee.
However, just 48 hours after the lawsuit was filed, the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) announced the shutdown of GARM (which has been operating since 2019), citing limited resources.
X CEO Linda Yaccarino called the dissolution “a necessary step in the right direction,” and argued that “no small group should be able to monopolise what gets monetized.”
Despite the closure, WFA’s CEO, Stephan Loerke, vowed to contest the lawsuit’s allegations and prove their adherence to competition laws.
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