The Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) was established as an initiative of the World Federation of Advertisers, who are responsible for 90 percent of global ad spending, and American taxpayer dollars are making their way to the group though four top ad agencies. The first, Omnicom, boasts $5 billion worth of contracts with the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Air Force and Army, while IPG has more than $1.5 billion worth of contracts with the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services. WPP has made $455 million through work done for the Navy, while Publicis Groupe has more than $394 million in contracts with the Department of Health and Human Services.
GARM represents dozens of major corporations, including Walmart, Toyota, Coca-Cola and Disney, with its members spending nearly $1 trillion a year on ads. Its extensive censorship system was once described by a federal court as “Orwellian,” and attorney and legal professor Jonathan Turley noted: “The sophistication of this system makes authoritarian regimes like China’s and Iran’s look like mere amateurs in censorship and blacklisting.”
House Judiciary Committee investigating GARM's censorship of conservatives
The U.S. House Judiciary Committee recently released a report of its own about GARM, demonstrating how they use their outsized control over internet ad revenue to pressure social media platforms such as Facebook to censor conservatives.
GARM also targeted Spotify, pressuring them to drop podcast host Joe Rogan over comments he made about vaccines, COVID-19 government policies and other opinions he shared that go against official Biden administration narratives. The group went after major Spotify advertisers, such as Coca-Cola, cautioning them that they were concerned about Rogan’s opinions.
They have also gone after conservative media more directly, attempting to push advertisers away from news sites such as the Daily Wire and Breitbart.
The committee has sent letters to dozens of major companies as part of an investigation into collusion between the ad cartel and the government. Some of the companies include Bayer, CVS, Chanel, General Motors, Adidas and BP. They have been instructed to preserve their documents and give the committee information about their activities with GARM.
The letter said the committee had evidence they were coordinating boycotts of “disfavored” news and media outlets, social media platforms and podcasts. It said that GARM “has deviated far from its original intent, and has collectively used its immense market power to demonetize voices and viewpoints the group disagrees with.”
The committee also has evidence that GARM directed members not to run ads on X after Elon Musk purchased it and stated his intention to relax content moderation policies and reinstate right-leaning voices who had previously been banned from the platform, such as former President Donald Trump. Musk has called GARM an “advertising boycott racket” and threatened them with legal action.
The committee is currently investigating whether the cabal is in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, which could lead to criminal or civil charges. An official referral could be made to the Justice Department depending on the results of their investigation.
The House committee report warned: “For an organization reliant on speech and persuasion in advertising, GARM appears to have anti-democratic views of fundamental American freedoms.”
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