News X files antitrust lawsuit against advertisers over ‘illegal boycott’

[tom_mai78101]

X is suing a group of major advertisers over accusations that they held an “illegal boycott” against the platform formerly known as Twitter. In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, X claims Unilever, Mars, CVS, Ørsted, and dozens of other brands conspired to “collectively withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue” through a World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) industry initiative.

To join the WFA’s initiative, called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), companies must agree to withhold advertising from social platforms that aren’t compliant with the organization’s safety standards. X alleges GARM “organized an advertiser boycott of Twitter” to coerce the company into following the initiative’s safety standards. The lawsuit is being filed despite X announcing that it was “excited” to rejoin GARM last month.

“The evidence and facts are on our side,” X CEO Linda Yaccarino said in a video posted to X. “They conspired to boycott X, which threatens our ability to thrive in the future. That puts your global Town Square — the one place that you can express yourself freely and openly — at long-term risk.”

A separate post from Elon Musk said he “strongly encourage any company who has been systematically boycotted by advertisers to file a lawsuit,” as there could also be “criminal liability” under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act — a law that aims to crack down on organized crimes.

X files antitrust lawsuit against advertisers over ‘illegal boycott’

Another Elon Musk lawsuit incoming.

www.theverge.com

 

[tom_mai78101]

Advertising Group Shutters After Elon Musk’s X Files Lawsuit​

The Global Alliance for Responsible Media, a prominent coalition of advertisers, dissolved on Thursday, just days after Elon Musk’s X filed a lawsuit against the organization.

GARM was established in 2019 by the World Federation of Advertisers, a network of major businesses whose members include Nike Inc., McDonald’s Corp. and Procter & Gamble Co., among others. The coalition provided a set of widely-used guidelines for brand safety controls, which help advertisers prevent harmful content such as hate speech or violent content from appearing next to their advertisements on social media platforms and other places.

Musk’s X filed a lawsuit against GARM on Tuesday, claiming the organization was responsible for an “illegal” advertising boycott that took place in 2022 shortly after Musk took over the company, then called Twitter.

“GARM is a small, not-for-profit initiative, and recent allegations that unfortunately misconstrue its purpose and activities have caused a distraction and significantly drained its resources and finances,” the group wrote in a statement on its website. “GARM therefore is making the difficult decision to discontinue its activities.”

Lou Paskalis, a former ad executive who now runs the consultancy firm AJL Advisory, described Musk’s decision to sue GARM as “extraordinary” and said that the group’s closure will have a “chilling effect” on how the industry operates moving forward. “I’m enraged by this,” he said.

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