X's Antitrust Suit is Virtue Signaling

Let’s talk about the antitrust suit filed by X.

On August 6th, 2024, X filed a federal antitrust suit against GARM, the Global Alliance for Responsible Media. The organization was founded in 2019 by the World Federation of Advertisers to set standards around brand safety for digital advertisers. It’s considered a great tool by many large players in the ad industry (as well as large corporations who are members such as Unilever or PepsiCo) to let a third party handle the acceptability of advertising environments.

According to an article published by the House Judiciary Committee in July, the Committee alleges that GARM favors left-leaning news sources and takes a hawkish approach to finding reasons to exclude conservative media outlets like Breitbart and The Daily Wire. They cite a quote by GARM’s leader and co-founder Rob Rakowitz:

“There is an interesting parallel here with Breitbart. Before Breitbart crossed the line and started spouting blatant misinformation, we had long discussions about whether we should include them on our exclusion lists. As much as we hated their ideology and [BS], we couldn’t really justify blocking them for misguided opinion. We watched them very carefully and it didn’t take long for them to cross the line.”

The House Judiciary Committee frames this as clear evidence of prejudice against conservatives, claiming that GARM was lying in wait for Breitbart to misstep so they could silence a conservative news outlet by removing advertising revenue from the equation. Linda Yaccarino even mentions this report as a reason for X’s filing of the antitrust suit. But that begs the question: isn’t that GARM’s job?

GARM’s members are constituted by members like Unilever, P&G, and PepsiCo, who in turn each have hundreds, if not thousands, of subsidiary companies underneath them. These companies likely control trillions of dollars in cashflow a year, and it would be detrimental to them to have an ad positioned next to harmful content.

This is not a unique situation, mind you. A mass exodus of advertisers from a platform has happened once before on YouTube (a much larger social media platform) in 2017. After advertisements by major companies were playing on videos that were deemed insensitive, harmful, violent, or offensive, advertisers pulled from YouTube en masse in an event deemed the “adpocalypse.” With YouTube blackballed by advertisers and by political pundits, did they file an antitrust suit against WFA or other advertising conglomerates? No. In fact, Youtube themselves were sued by their own content creators over the adpocalypse, and a federal judge dismissed the case.

The issue with this situation is that it is being politicized as opposed to being looked at objectively. Most businesses do not want to be associated with content that some would consider “extremist.” I would bet both of my kidneys that GARM and WFA have also blacklisted organizations like Mother Jones or other far-left news sources and editorial papers. Big businesses, who conduct business with millions, if not billions, of consumers around the world, simply do not want to be associated with harmful content. It’s as simple as that.

Linda Yaccarino is playing off the politicization of this situation. She claimed that marketers should lean into the popularity of the Elon and Trump interview, and become more skeptical of mainstream outlets. However, claims that she “urge[s] people to make decisions on business data and facts and not any type of bias whatsoever…” (Fischer). Which is it?

I chock this situation up to virtue signaling. It’s clear advertising revenue is way down for X since Elon’s takeover, and perhaps they’re trying to save face. Or maybe they’re just trying to go down fighting. Regardless, I see this case tossed out quick in federal court.

Gray, R., & Coppins, M. (2016, March 14). MichelleFields, Ben Shapiro resign from Breitbart. BuzzFeed News.https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosiegray/michelle-fields-ben-shapiro-resign-from-breitbart#.rjqgwOGDm

House Judiciary Committee report exposes ShadowyCorporate Coordination to silence conservatives. House Judiciary CommitteeRepublicans. (2024, July 10).https://judiciary.house.gov/media/in-the-news/house-judiciary-committee-report-exposes-shadowy-corporate-coordination-silence

Kumar, S. (2019, June 30). The algorithmic dance:YouTube’s Adpocalypse and the gatekeeping of cultural content on digitalplatforms. Internet Policy Review.https://policyreview.info/articles/analysis/algorithmic-dance-youtubes-adpocalypse-and-gatekeeping-cultural-content-digital

Robertson, A. (2019, October 25). Mark Zuckerberg isstruggling to explain why Breitbart belongs on Facebook News. The Verge.https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/25/20932653/facebook-news-breitbart-mark-zuckerberg-statement-bias

Scoop: X files antitrust lawsuit against AD Industry groupgarm. (n.d.-a).https://www.axios.com/2024/08/06/scoop-x-sues-major-brands-ad-industry-group-for-antitrust

X CEO Linda Yaccarino says the ad industry needs a “reset.”(n.d.-b).https://www.axios.com/2024/08/13/x-ceo-linda-yaccarino-ad-industry-reset

Yahoo! (n.d.). Google defeats zombie go boom“adpocalypse” lawsuit. Yahoo! Finance.https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/google-defeats-zombie-boom-adpocalypse-lawsuit-153826548--finance.html

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