The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) is ending its Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) initiative, just days after being sued by social media platform X (formerly Twitter), AP News reports.
The lawsuit alleges that GARM coordinated a significant advertiser boycott of X following Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in 2022. X claims that advertisers conspired with GARM to withhold billions in advertising revenue and violated antitrust laws. The WFA stated that the allegations against GARM have misconstrued its purpose and drained its resources.
GARM, established in 2019, aimed to improve transparency in social media ad placements, reducing harmful and illegal content ads from 6.1% in 2020 to 1.7% in 2023. This dispute follows earlier advertiser concerns about their ads appearing next to offensive content on X.
