{"id":2291847,"date":"2024-07-10T11:20:02","date_gmt":"2024-07-10T15:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/report-global-companies-colluded-to-censor-conservatives\/"},"modified":"2024-07-10T11:28:34","modified_gmt":"2024-07-10T15:28:34","slug":"report-global-companies-colluded-to-censor-conservatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/report-global-companies-colluded-to-censor-conservatives\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Global Companies Colluded To Censor Conservatives"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Freport-global-companies-colluded-to-censor-conservatives%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2291847&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The Global Alliance for\u2062 Responsible Media \u200b(GARM)\u2063 has been accused of violating federal\u200c antitrust \u200blaws by using its market power to \u2062demonize news websites, platforms, and podcasts that it disagrees with. According to\u2063 a report by the\u200d House Judiciary Committee, GARM, founded in 2019, aims to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-gop-rep-will-hurd-yes-social-media-companies-should-censor-trump\/\" title=\"Former GOP Rep Will Hurd: Yes, Social Media Companies Should Censor Trump\">control online speech<\/a> and \u200dprevent \u200bthe spread of what it considers harmful content. The organization includes major advertisers, \u2063media buying agencies, and trade associations, and has \u200cbeen accused of colluding with the world&#8217;s \u2063largest\u2064 advertisers\u2062 to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gop-lawmaker-demands-receipts-from-big-tech-on-alleged-collusion-with-biden-white-house-to-censor-dissenting-views\/\" title=\"GOP Lawmaker Demands Receipts From Big Tech on Alleged \u2018Collusion\u2019 With Biden White House to Censor Dissenting Views\">censor dissenting views<\/a>. \u200dGARM has targeted \u2063platforms like Twitter and Spotify, as well \u200cas popular podcasters like Joe Rogan, leading to concerns about censorship and restriction\u200c of free speech. The organization also encourages\u200c companies to \u200duse rankings from government-backed censors to blacklist conservative outlets. The report warns of the\u2063 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fact-check-did-the-anti-defamation-league-designate-lets-go-brandon-as-a-hate-slogan\/\" title=\"FACT CHECK: Did The Anti-Defamation League Designate \u2018Let\u2019s Go Brandon\u2019 As A \u2018Hate Slogan\u2019?\">anti-democratic views<\/a> \u2063of GARM and its\u2064 potential impact on freedom of speech online.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) likely violated federal antitrust laws when it used its \u201ctremendous market power\u201d in the advertising world to encourage the demonization of news websites, platforms, and podcasts it deems guilty of wrongthink, a <a href=\"https:\/\/judiciary.house.gov\/sites\/evo-subsites\/republicans-judiciary.house.gov\/files\/evo-media-document\/2024-07-10%20GARMs%20Harm%20-%20How%20the%20Worlds%20Biggest%20Brands%20Seek%20to%20Control%20Online%20Speech.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">new report<\/a> published by the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday found. <\/p>\n<p>Shortly after Rob Rakowitz co-founded GARM in 2019 with the World Federation of Advertisers, he complained that \u201c[p]eople are advocating for freedom of speech online\u201d and using a \u201c\u2018radical interpretation[]\u2019\u201d of freedom of speech.\u201d To curb this First Amendment phenomenon and prevent it from going global, he called for an \u201cuncommon collaboration\u201d to \u201crise above individual commercial interest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor an organization reliant on speech and persuasion in advertising, GARM appears to have anti-democratic views of fundamental American freedoms,\u201d the report warns.<\/p>\n<p>GARM claims to \u201csafeguard the potential of digital media by reducing the availability and monetization of harmful content online\u201d using a Steer Team of four major advertisers (Proctor &#038; Gamble, Mars, Unilever, and Diageo), the world\u2019s largest media buying agency (GroupM), and three trade associations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGARM also includes the so-called \u2018Big Six\u2019 as members. In the advertising industry, the \u2018Big Six\u2019 refer to the \u2018biggest ad agency holding companies around the world.\u2019 Together, these companies hold nearly every major advertising agency,\u201d the report notes. <\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/15\/1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Section 1 of the Sherman Act<\/a> prohibits organizations like GARM from conspiracy against commerce or restraint of trade. House Republicans, however, warned the ongoing \u201ccollusion\u201d between GARM and the world\u2019s largest advertisers inevitably results in unjust viewpoint censorship of popular dissidents over their First Amendment-protected speech.<\/p>\n<p>When Elon Musk took over Twitter and turned it into X, GARM, at the behest of Rakowitz, organized a boycott among its members to prevent advertisers from spending their money there. Rakowitz denied his role in the coordinated campaign against Musk\u2019s free speech efforts in a transcribed interview with Republican investigators, but documents obtained by the committee indicate he \u201ctook credit for Twitter\u2019s revenue decline.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<p>Steer Team member Unilever also complained to Rakowitz about \u201cissues\u201d with the platform\u2019s \u201covertly partisan takes (e.g., Hunter Biden laptop expos\u00e9.)\u201d<\/p>\n<p>GARM applied similar tactics against \u201cThe Joe Rogan Experience\u201d in 2022 after Steer Team member Joe Barone of GroupM determined that advertisers and platforms like Spotify should be concerned about the alleged \u201cmisinformation\u201d about Covid-19 shots touted by the top podcaster. The committee noted that \u201cGroupM knew there was no brand safety concern because it did not buy advertisements on Mr. Rogan\u2019s podcast, but it still sought to silence Mr. Rogan\u2019s views anyway\u201d by bringing their concerns to GARM.<\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<p>Coca-Cola also approached GARM about Spotify and Rogan\u2019s show. Rakowitz \u201cindicated he could not collectively tell every GARM member what to do\u201d because it \u201cgets us into hot water by way of anticompetitive and collusive behaviors,\u201d so \u201cinstead, he advised GARM members individually what to do, effectively aligning all GARM members.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cMr. Rakowitz\u2019s power comes from the members of GARM and their advertising dollars. Because power lies with the members, when members communicate an opinion to Mr. Rakowitz, he is likely to communicate that opinion on to the platforms. Ultimately, when platforms receive the message from Mr. Rakowitz, the companies have the choice to cede to his demands or risk losing their advertising revenue,\u201d the report notes. <\/p>\n<p>GARM doesn\u2019t simply use its own influence to convince companies to turn against dissenters. The organization also pushes companies to use rankings from government-backed censors like <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/05\/25\/state-funded-university-of-texas-managed-censorship-project-targeting-conservative-outlets\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Global Disinformation Index<\/a> (GDI) and <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/11\/15\/meet-newsguard-the-government-backed-censorship-tool-billed-as-an-arbiter-of-truth\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">NewsGuard<\/a>, which repeatedly blacklist conservative outlets <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/12\/06\/state-of-texas-joins-the-federalist-daily-wire-in-suing-the-federal-censorship-industrial-complex\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">such as The Federalist,<\/a> to determine who bears the brunt of their coordinated boycotts.<\/p>\n<p>News outlets like The Daily Wire, Breitbart, and even Fox News that might \u201ccross the line\u201d by offering what the committee called \u201cdisfavored views\u201d were also heavily surveilled and scrutinized by Steer Team members like GroupM who used emails to discuss their hatred for the publications\u2019 conservative roots.<\/p>\n<p>The cherry on top of all of GARM\u2019s scheming was when the organization \u201cpushed Facebook for coordinated action around the upcoming elections similar to the actions the platform took during the COVID-19 pandemic to censor speech.\u201d Steer Team member Unilever even pressured Facebook to censor one of former President Donald Trump\u2019s 2020 campaign ads discussing \u201cSleepy Joe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGARM and its members weaponize their power to influence elections \u2026 through pressuring platforms to label content as misinformation,\u201d the report notes.<\/p>\n<p>Republican investigators said that GARM\u2019s \u201ccollusive conduct to demonetize disfavored content is alarming.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe extent to which GARM has organized its trade association and coordinates actions that rob consumers of choices is likely illegal under the antitrust laws and threatens fundamental American freedoms,\u201d the report concludes.<\/p>\n<p>The House Judiciary published the report the same day it hosted a hearing exploring <a href=\"https:\/\/judiciary.house.gov\/committee-activity\/hearings\/collusion-global-alliance-responsible-media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201ccollusion in the Global Alliance for Responsible Media\u201d<\/a> and \u201cwhether existing civil and criminal penalties and current antitrust law enforcement efforts are sufficient to deter anticompetitive collusion in online advertising.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on X @jordanboydtx.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The House Judiciary Committee&#8217;s report found that the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) may have violated antitrust laws by using its significant influence in the advertising industry to target and demonize certain news websites, platforms, and podcasts. GARM, led by Rob Rakowitz, aims to reduce harmful content online by collaborating with major advertisers and media agencies. The report highlights instances where GARM pressured companies to boycott platforms like Twitter and Spotify based on their content, leading to concerns about censorship and infringement on free speech. The report also raises concerns about GARM&#8217;s use of government-backed censors to blacklist conservative outlets and influence elections. The report concludes that GARM&#8217;s actions may be illegal under antitrust laws and pose a threat to American freedoms<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":490,"featured_media":2291848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screenshot-2024-07-10-at-9.20.58-AM-e1720621291144-1024x575.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[10971,34516,3819],"class_list":["post-2291847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colluded","tag-global-companies","tag-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screenshot-2024-07-10-at-9.20.58-AM-e1720621291144-1024x575.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2291847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/490"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2291847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2291847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2291848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2291847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2291847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2291847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}