On August 8, The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) announced to members that it was “discontinuing” the activities of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM).
In an email viewed by Business Insider, Stephan Loerke, the CEO of the WFA, emphasized in an email to members that the decision wasn’t made lightly. In fact, Loerke said it was a necessary one because GARM is a not-for-profit company with limited resources.
GARM (and the WFA), according to Loerke, will channel their resources into contesting the allegations in X’s lawsuit against them. He also wrote that he was optimistic that the case’s outcome would “demonstrate [GARM’s] full adherence to competition rules in all our activities.”
X lawsuit explained
X filed the antitrust lawsuit on August 6. In a lengthy open letter shared on the platform, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said that GARM’s “illegal” actions had cost X “billions” of dollars.
“To put it simply,” she added, “People are hurt when the marketplace of ideas is undermined and some viewpoints are not funded over others as part of an illegal boycott. This behavior is a stain on a great industry, and cannot be allowed to continue.”
Elon Musk expressed a similar sentiment in a post on X. He wrote that this is now “war.” But it looks like GARM won’t be waving the white flag anytime soon.
