Ad Group Shuts Down After Elon Musk Files Lawsuit Against Advertisers

Advertising group Global Alliance for Responsible Media has been shut down after Elon Musk filed a lawsuit against sponsors for pulling out of the social media platform.

Earlier this week, Musk’s Company X filed a lawsuit against the World Federation of Advertisers, which launched GARM, as well as Mars, CVS, Unilever and Orsted, a Danish clean energy company.

“GARM is a small, nonprofit initiative, and recent allegations that unfortunately misrepresent its purpose and activities have caused a distraction and significantly drained its resources and finances,” the group said in a statement. “WFA is therefore making the difficult decision to discontinue GARM.”

Musk claimed that advertisers violated antitrust law when sponsors pulled their ads from X, fearing their brands would appear next to racist and anti-Semitic posts. As sponsors pulled out one by one in 2023, Musk at one point told advertisers to “go fuck themselves.”

“This is an antitrust action involving a group boycott by competing advertisers of one of the most popular social media platforms in the United States,” X wrote in the lawsuit. “The members of GARM abruptly and unanimously boycotted Twitter, completely or significantly reducing their previously significant advertising purchases,” calling it a conspiracy and collusion.

However, in a statement, GARM said it had “increased transparency around digital social media ad placement by providing voluntary and pro-competitive tools for the advertising industry.” It was launched in 2019 after the Christchurch mosque shooting in New Zealand, when the gunman live-streamed the attack on Facebook.

“This comes after a series of high-profile cases where brand ads appeared alongside illegal or harmful content, such as promoting terrorism or child pornography, creating problems for both consumers and brands’ reputations,” the group said.