“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.”
X owner Elon Musk has vowed to bring a lawsuit after a congressional hearing on Wednesday revealed deep bias and intentional boycotts launched by the advertising industry against conservative social media platforms and conservative media outlets. Ben Schapiro testified about these boycotts and Jim Jordan of the Judiciary Commmittee dug into concerns that a global cabal of advertising groups used concepts of misinformation and disinformation to silence suppress conservative speech online.
The group that came under the microscope was the World Economic Forum-backed Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM). Elon Musk said that X would have "no choice but to file suit against the perpetrators and collaborators in the advertising boycott racket."
"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," Musk posted in response to testimony from Ben Shapiro. He added, "Hopefully, some states will consider criminal prosecution."
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View on XThe committee found in their report that "GARM’s internal documents show that GARM was asked by a member to 'arrange a meeting and hear more about [GARM’s] perspectives about the Twitter situation and a possible boycott from many companies.' GARM also held 'extensive debriefing and discussion around Elon Musks’ [sic] takeover of Twitter.'"
Additionally, the report stated that "At the urging of its members, GARM and its Steer Team threatened Spotify over alleged misinformation on Joe Rogan’s podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, because Mr. Rogan stated an opinion that young, healthy people need not receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
"GARM even admitted it was acting outside of the scope of its work on brand safety, explaining to one of its members that '[b]rand safety is somewhat separate on Spotify versus say Facebook Newsfeed because brands aren’t being slotted into' the podcast," the report added.
Mike Benz explained to Charlie Kirk that GARM has been "weaponized as a way to destroy conservative and independent-leaning media institutions." GARM is in charge of $2.6 billion in annual programmatic ad spending on news sites and is connected to the World Economic Forum and that NATO was attempting to "kill alterantive media" with the organization.
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View on XThe report as well as the testimony from Shapiro provided evidence that GARM as well as "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." The efforts to boycott outlets were largely aimed at conservative points of view.
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