Elon Musk Threatens Legal Action Over Alleged Advertising Boycott Collusion of X
Elon Musk announced on Thursday that he is considering legal action in response to what he described as an “advertising boycott racket,” amid claims that advertisers are colluding against his social media platform X. Musk’s comments came in reaction to a video of Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro speaking before a congressional hearing about alleged collusion against conservative media.
“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 wrote in his post “Hopefully, some states will consider criminal prosecution.”
The congressional hearing was held by a House Judiciary panel and focused on the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM). GARM is an initiative that was established by the World Federation of Advertisers, which includes many major companies such as Disney, Coca-Cola, and Toyota. It was designed to “address the challenge of harmful content on digital media platforms and its monetization via advertising.” The members of the WFA account for about 90 percent of all global advertising spending, according to the New York Post.
An internal email from February 2023 revealed that GARM chief Robert Rakowitz boasted about how X was “80% below revenue forecasts” following GARM’s challenge of brand safety issues regarding the platform. Despite this, Rakowitz denied organizing a boycott or recommending that GARM members stop advertising on Twitter.
Additionally, members of the House allege that GARM has demonstrated bias against conservative media companies. An email conversation from October 2021 between Rakowitz and an executive at GroupM, the world’s largest media buying agency, showed the two discussing a strategy of blocking certain news outlets like Fox News, The Daily Wire, and Breitbart News.
In his statement during the hearing, which Musk shared, Shapiro called on Congress to push back against “censorship cartels like GARM and executive branch agencies” that target conservative companies because of their viewpoints.
