The Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) likely violated federal antitrust laws when it used its “tremendous market power” in the advertising world to encourage the demonization of news websites, platforms, and podcasts it deems guilty of wrongthink, a new report published by the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday found.
Shortly after Rob Rakowitz co-founded GARM in 2019 with the World Federation of Advertisers, he complained that “[p]eople are advocating for freedom of speech online” and using a “‘radical interpretation[]’” of freedom of speech.” To curb this First Amendment phenomenon and prevent it from going global, he called for an “uncommon collaboration” to “rise above individual commercial interest.”
“For an organization reliant on speech and persuasion in advertising, GARM appears to have anti-democratic views of fundamental American freedoms,” the report warns.
GARM claims to “safeguard the potential of digital media by reducing the availability and monetization of harmful content online” using a Steer Team of four major advertisers (Proctor & Gamble, Mars, Unilever, and Diageo), the world’s largest media buying agency (GroupM), and three trade associations.
“GARM also includes the so-called ‘Big Six’ as members. In the advertising industry, the ‘Big Six’ refer to the ‘biggest ad agency holding companies around the world.’ Together, these companies hold nearly every major advertising agency,” the report notes.
Section 1 of the Sherman Act prohibits organizations like GARM from conspiracy against commerce or restraint of trade. House Republicans, however, warned the ongoing “collusion” between GARM and the world’s largest advertisers
