Global (Commonwealth Union) _ A congressional investigation has revealed an alleged collaboration between major players in the advertising industry and foreign regulators that was focused on orchestrating a Twitter boycott. Following Elon Musk‘s acquisition of X in 2022, the platform became a target.
Emails released by the House Judiciary Committee indicated coordinated pressure exerted by the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), an initiative created by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) that is currently non-operational and focused on restricting ad placements and labelling the platform as unsafe.
According to the investigations carried out, GARM has pushed advertisers to disengage with the platform as Musk began reversing content moderation policies, engaging with regulators from Europe and Australia. Reports regarding internal communications suggest that GARM had been involved in crafting public messaging for the brands and encouraging them to withdraw from what they claimed was a high risk on the platform. As indicated by the House committee’s report, this strategy was deemed to be politically motivated, with the messaging having reportedly been tailored to evade explicit antitrust violations.
In an email to an Australian official, the head of GARM, Rob Rakowitz, expressed his concerns regarding the “contagion” associated with the presence of U.S. President Donald Trump online and alluded to the influence of the president as a growing threat. Rakowitz also conveyed this concern to the members of the coalition via email, stating that “The bird has gone from freed to fried,” alluding to the changes that have been made to the platform by Musk. He also posed a warning that Twitter was now “unsafe” and that advertisers needed to cease and desist.
Following this, X had filed a lawsuit against the WFA and several companies, including Unilever, CVS Health, and Mars, on the grounds of participation in an unlawful boycott resulting in the loss of billions in revenue. The lawsuit claims that the actions of the coalition amount to anti-competitive conduct, undermining fair market values.
In the meantime, Omnicom and IPG, two major advertising firms, have come to an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to focus on eliminating such collaborative efforts that could be seen to interfere with or turn away ad revenue from online platforms. They have also guaranteed their cooperation with the ongoing investigations related to GARM.
