Grzegorz Wajda/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Responding to the House GOP’s exposé of the apparent collusion between supposed guardians of free speech and advertisers, billionaire Elon Musk said on Thursday that his social media platform X would sue the perpetrators of the advertising boycott against conservative news organizations.
The House Judiciary Committee, led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), held a hearing on Wednesday. During the hearing, they interviewed four people regarding the issue: The Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro; Herrish Patel, the president of Unilever; Christian Juhl, the Global Chief Executive Officer of GroupM; and Spencer Waller, a professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law.
“Having seen the evidence unearthed today by Congress, X has no choice but to file suit against the perpetrators and collaborators in the advertising boycott racket. Hopefully, some states will consider criminal prosecution,” Musk tweeted.
Having seen the evidence unearthed today by Congress, 𝕏 has no choice but to file suit against the perpetrators and collaborators in the advertising boycott racket.
Hopefully, some states will consider criminal prosecution. https://t.co/5W4yf1wxVO
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2024
The House Judiciary Committee released a report in which it stated, “In exercising oversight of the adequacy and sufficiency of existing U.S. antitrust laws, the Committee has been investigating apparent collusion within the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and specifically its Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) initiative. Through GARM, large corporations, advertising agencies, and industry associations participated in boycotts and other coordinated action to demonetize platforms, podcasts, news outlets, and other content deemed disfavored by GARM and its members.”
Earlier this month, Musk’s X announced it had “reinstated” its relationship with the WFA and GARM and was “proud to be part of the GARM community!” X is currently listed as a GARM member on WFA’s website.
“By basically demonetizing conservative platforms and websites, you make it that tough for those ideas to be heard,” Jordan told Newsmax. “We asked the question for one of the companies who is on the board of this organization GARM, Global Alliance for Responsible Media — misnamed, should be named HARM — one of the companies that was there. I said, do you advertise on The Daily Wire? Do they advertise on Newsmax? Do they advertise on Breitbart?”
“And the answer to those questions was no. But they advertise on ‘The View.’ They advertise in The Washington Post. So it’s totally biased. We all know that instinctively, but now we have documents that show it,” he added.
Jordan pointed out a reported attempt by GARM to boycott X after Musk bought it in October 2022.
“They use this term ‘uncommon collaboration,’ which is a fancy way of saying it’s a cartel, and we’re going to set these standards,” Jordan said. “But the standards are such that they’re so subjective. They can sort of be gotten around any way you want. And then all they really do is advertise on left sides or where there are sites with no politics, and they never seem to put any advertising dollars or very little when it comes to conservative platforms and conservative websites.”
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