Elon Musk’s X Files Antitrust Lawsuit against Advertising Group GARM over ‘Illegal Boycott’

• Elon Musk's X has filed an antitrust lawsuit in a Texas federal court, accusing advertising group GARM of intentionally boycotting the platform.
• Ever since Musk acquired the company in 2022, ad revenue has been on a steady decline, and Musk thinks GARM is the reason.
• The World Federation of Advertisers, which runs the GARM, has declined to comment.

Elon Musk's X has filed an antitrust lawsuit against a major group of industry advertisers, including its own advertisers, accusing them of intentionally boycotting X.

Announcing the lawsuit on his X account, Musk wrote We tried peace for 2 years, now it is war."

What's the Lawsuit About

The lawsuit was filed in Texas federal court, accusing the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) of conspiring against X and convincing brands to limit or completely remove their ads from X, which is why the company has been struggling with ad revenue ever since Musk acquired it in 2022.

CEO Lina Yaccarino said in a post on X that things have reached a point where if the situation isn't fixed, X's future might become uncertain.

Through the lawsuit, X is seeking monetary compensation and aims to prevent the GARM from making future suggestions on which platform a company should advertise on.

The World Federation of Advertisers have declined to comment on the matter.

Why Are Brands Boycotting X?

In addition to Elon Musk's allegations, there could be a few more reasons why brands and companies alike are boycotting X.

For starters, when Musk acquired the company, the platform's content moderation was severely affected. Misinformation and hate speech were frequently seen floating around and some were even promoted by Elon Musk himself.

Now, a lot of brands don't want their ads to run alongside such content, which is absolutely fair, in my opinion.

The other reason could be Elon Musk's behavior. Reports suggest that he doesn't handle conflicts with the advertisers very well. When they started leaving the platform, he told some of them to go f*ck yourself".

About GARM

GARM is a cross-industry initiative' run by the World Federation of Advertisers. The purpose of this group is to prevent brands from accidentally running their ads with harmful or illegal content.

In total, GARM has 100 companies as members. Out of these, the top four are CVS Health, Unilever, Mars, and Orsted (all four have been named in the lawsuit). It's easy to see why a boycott by the GARM will significantly impact any business's revenue. In this case, it's X.

It's well worth noting that this isn't the first time someone has raised questions about how GARM operates. Despite its influence, the group came under scrutiny in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives last month, where a report from the Judiciary Committee accused it of intentionally boycotting conservative news sites.

The report concluded that GARM might have violated antitrust laws and could be shown to be demonetizing certain viewpoints to limit consumer choice."

The Bottom Line

All in all, on one hand, it looks like Elon Musk has a fair shot at winning the lawsuit, but on the other hand, GARM's website says that it doesn't interfere with a brand's decision on whether or not to invest in a certain platform.

If the group's role is truly advisory and the brands are boycotting X on their own, i.e., without any malicious influence, there's really nothing Elon Musk or X can do about it. Stay tuned to find out how this unfolds.

The post Elon Musk's X Files Antitrust Lawsuit against Advertising Group GARM over Illegal Boycott' appeared first on The Tech Report.