Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X (formerly Twitter), announced that the company has filed an antitrust lawsuit against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) and its members. The lawsuit also targets the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA).
The lawsuit is related to a report by the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee’s investigation into “GARM’s Harm”, which found evidence of an illegal boycott against many companies, including X.
As Yaccarino stated, “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.”
Rumble, another video-sharing platform, has joined X in the lawsuit against GARM and its members. The specific members targeted by the lawsuit include CVS Health, Mars, Orsted, and Unilever.
The investigation found that these companies had worked together with GARM and the WFA to influence online speech, using tactics such as boycotts, de-platforming, and other forms of online censorship.
X’s usage has grown despite the alleged harm caused by this coalition’s actions, with user active minutes increasing by 25% from August 2022 (7.2 billion) to an unspecified date (more than 9 billion), and daily video views increasing by 45% over last year to 8.2 billion.
The report also notes that the WFA has worked closely with GARM to develop guidelines for responsible advertising, which have been adopted by many major brands.
