Who Are These Guys? The Shadowy Groups Dedicated to Censoring Your Online Content

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PJ Media

The House Judiciary Committee has published a damning interim report on the shadowy network of online censors that "rob consumers of choices and are likely illegal under the antitrust laws." according to the report titled "GARM's Harm: How the World's Biggest Brands Seek to Control Online Speech."

 

GARM (Global Alliance for Responsible Media} is an initiative of the World Federation Of Advertisers (WFA) which represents about 150 of the world's top companies such as ExxonMobil, GM, General Mills, McDonald’s, Visa, SC Johnson, and Walmart, as well as 60 ad associations worldwide. 

“The 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,” said the Committee report, which is based on internal organizational reports.

“The information uncovered to date of WFA and GARM’s collusive conduct to demonetize disfavored content is alarming," claims the report.

The WFA represents about 90% of global advertising dollars spent, almost $1 trillion annually. 

New York Post:

The new report establishes links between the WFA’s “responsible media” initiative and the taxpayer-funded Global Disinformation Index (GDI), a London-based group that in 2022 unveiled an ad blacklist of 10 news outlets whose opinion sections tilted conservative or libertarian, including The Post, RealClearPolitics and Reason magazine.

Documents acquired by Congress show that some GARM members thought the GDI’s blacklist was bogus — with one employee writing that it was “bewildering” that the group “somehow placed the NYPost as ‘at most risk’ paper in the USA for disinformation.”

But additional documents show that the GDI’s blacklist was nonetheless promoted to WFA members as a tool to gauge misinformation and demonize disfavored outlets.