There seems to be no end to the number of organizations and groups who work together to foster their woke globalist agenda. In this article I would like to introduce the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM)(1) as another important player.

During a congressional testimony, Ben Shapiro (5) gave a very enlightening description of this GARM, whose advertisers are responsible for 90% of ad-spending in the US. In his testimony (2) he notes that due to ‘an informal pressure system created by Democratic legislators, this White House, legacy media, advertisers, and pseudo-objective brand safety organizations. That system guarantees that advertising dollars flow only to left-wing media brands.‘

Shapiro further on explains what GARM is all about:

“GARM purportedly sets brand safety standards, objective standards by which advertisers and platforms can supposedly determine just what sort of content ought to be deemed safe for advertising. “In reality, GARM acts as a cartel. Its members account for 90% of ad spending in the United States, almost a trillion dollars. In other words, if you’re not getting ad dollars from GARM members, it’s nearly impossible to run an ad-based business. And if you’re not following their preferred political narratives, …. you will not be deemed brand safe. Your business will be throttled. ” (2)

WHAT ARE THE STANDARDS OF GARM?
” The standards begin with inarguable things that we’ve heard from the other witnesses, like preventing the distribution of child sexual abuse material or stopping terrorism. But GARM doesn’t draw the line at what is criminal, abusive, or dangerous.

Their standards also include restrictions on hate speech, harassment, misinformation, or, my personal favorite, insensitive, irresponsible, and harmful treatment of debated, sensitive social issues. Those criteria are highly subjective in theory, and they are purely partisan in practice. For example, last year, Daily Wire host Matt Walsh was fully demonetized on YouTube, a GARM member. Why? For quote-unquote misgendering, which to GARM is to say that men are not women.”

Shapiro asks Congress “to investigate the informal and perhaps formal arrangements between censorship cartels like GARM and executive branch agencies.”


SOME REFLECTIONS
It seems that this GARM is indeed a kind of cartel that seems to promotes the deep state narratives on topics like the gender confusion movement. Based on what we have learned so far, it is highly likely that they will refuse to place their ads on websites that are critical towards their stories on climate change and vaccines etc. I guess they would prefer to advertise only for the ‘ideal citizens’ (3). In a way it is kind of slow financial censorship. By not supporting opposing voices they are likely to die off eventually.

Elon Musk said – in response to Shapiro’s testimony – that he has no choice but to file suit against the perpetrators and collaborators in the advertising boycott racket. (4). On August 6, 2024 this was exactly what was done as was clearly explained by Linda Yaccarino, the chief executive officer of X (6). You can read the full transcript of the above video at (2).

GARM DECIDED TO CLOSE DOWN
Only a few days after the filing of the anti-trust case (6,7) by X, The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) advertising giant decided to disband GARM and end it’s existence. They couldn’t afford to fight X in court was given as reason (8). Would this end the ways of these companies? We will have to see.

FOOTNOTES
(1) Global Alliance for Responsible Media
(2) https://x.com/VigilantFox/status/1811056137640530235
(3) The Ideal Citizen from a Deep State Perspective
(4) https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1811360296218341403
(5) Ben Shapiro on the Daily Wire
(6) https://x.com/lindayaX/status/1820838625245880634. You can find the open letter towards the advertisers at (7)

(7) https://x.com/lindayaX/status/1820838134470328676
(8) X fired a kill shot at Garm. Now, ad industry collaboration & standards-setting may suffer – Here’s a quote from this article: “Elon Musk – whose many labels include Tesla CEO, mercurial billionaire, conservative troll and disgruntled owner of X – has successfully bullied an advertising trade organization into closure.

The Global Alliance for Responsible Media (Garm), founded in 2019 by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) as a nonprofit coalition of industry stakeholders committed to enhancing digital safety and setting standards for brand safety and suitability, is being dissolved.”

The top-image was taken from (1)