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X is suing a cabal of some of the world’s largest advertising giants for organizing an allegedly illegal boycott to prevent advertisers from spending their money with companies that openly advocate for free speech.
Section 1 of the Sherman Act explicitly prohibits organizations from conspiracy against commerce or “restraint of trade.” X’s antitrust lawsuit, which was filed in a Texas court on Tuesday, aims to punish Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) and several of its members, including CVS Health, Mars, Ørsted, Unilever, and the World Federation of Advertisers, for trying to suppress online free speech by unfairly targeting some of the biggest promoters of the First Amendment.
“No small group of people should be able to monopolize what gets monetized,” X CEO Linda Yaccarino said in a video detailing the case.
The lawsuit, which video streaming company Rumble also joined, comes on the heels of a House Judiciary Committee report alleging GARM likely violated federal antitrust laws by colluding with giant ad buyer GroupM to coordinate the demonization of news websites, platforms, and podcasts it deemed guilty of wrongthink.
GARM specifically targeted X with an advertising boycott shortly after Tesla CEO Elon Musk acquired the company in October 2022 which allegedly cost the company “billions of dollars” in potential ad sales. Correspondence obtained by the committee shows GARM Co-Founder Rob Rakowitz bragged about and even “took credit for Twitter’s revenue decline,” according to the committee report.
According to Yaccarino, “X has
