Musk to sue major companies over advertising boycott

The move comes after a congressional report exposed a coalition of companies allegedly controlling online speech in the US  

Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter), announced on Thursday that he plans to take legal action against an alliance of the world’s biggest companies involved in what he described as an “advertising boycott racket.”  

The billionaire’s claim comes after a report from the US House Judiciary Committee revealed that a censorship cartel created by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) has been targeting X since Musk purchased the platform in 2022.  

According to the report, large corporations, advertising agencies, and industry associations through the WFA and specifically its Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) initiative “participated in boycotts and coordinated action to demonetize platforms, podcasts, news outlets, and other content that GARM and its members deem disfavored.”

“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 on the social media platform on Thursday. “Hopefully, some states will consider criminal prosecution.”  

The lawsuit is Musk’s response to what is perceived as a deliberate attempt by the coalition to destabilize his platform through a prearranged advertising boycott.  

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In a congressional testimony during a session titled ‘Collusion in the Global Alliance for Responsible Media’ on Wednesday, Ben Shapiro, co-founder of the Daily Wire, laid out an argument for how advertisers are targeting conservative news websites.  

Shapiro claimed that there is an “informal pressure system created by Democratic legislators, this White House, legacy media, advertisers, and pseudo-objective brand safety organizations” which guarantees that “advertising dollars flow only to left-wing media brands.”  

The House Judiciary Committee report stated that GARM’s “alarming” censorship activities “rob consumers of choices” and “threaten fundamental American freedoms.”  

GARM was established by the WFA to “address the challenge of harmful content on digital media platforms and its monetization via advertising,” and includes such giants as Disney, Coca-Cola, Toyota, and Hershey among its members.  

The organization, which according to Shapiro acts as a cartel, purportedly sets brand safety and objective standards by which advertisers and platforms can determine what sort of content ought to be deemed safe for advertising.  

WFA members account for roughly 90% of all advertising spending in the US, amounting to nearly $1 trillion annually, according to the congressional report.