Digital ad giants agree to end anti-conservative collusion after federal, state pressure

(LifeSiteNews) – The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it has secured a settlement in conjunction with multiple states aimed at stopping the nation’s largest advertising agencies from colluding to engage in viewpoint discrimination.

According to an April 15 press release, advertising agencies WPP, Publicis, and Dentsu, three major purchasers of digital ad space, colluded to establish “brand safety” standards through the World Federation of Advertisers’ Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) and American Association of Advertising Agencies’ Advertiser Protection Bureau (APB). 

In turn, these standards were used by left-wing content rating organizations like NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index to brand voices with whom they disagreed as purveyors of “misinformation,” which in turn led to viewpoint-based demonetization and discrimination, at the expense of competition and consumer choice.

In response to the threat of action, the agencies agreed to a proposed order to end any such agreements and abstain from entering into them in the future. The order must still be given final approval by a federal judge.

“The ad agencies’ brand-safety conspiracy turned competition in the market for ad-buying services on its head,” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said. “The antitrust laws guarantee participation in a market free from conduct, such as economic boycotts, that distort the fundamental competitive pressures that promote lower prices, higher quality products and increased innovation.”

“Freedom of speech is foundational to American liberty. A coordinated group of woke, powerful individuals attempted to suppress that Constitutional right by manipulating ad agencies into sabotaging the reach, revenue, and credibility of conservative voices,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton added. “This is a deeply disturbing violation of antitrust laws and our Constitution. This was an egregious attempt to control public opinion and silence those who speak out against the liberal elites and powerful corporations. I will continue to lead the fight against viewpoint suppression and protect the speech of Americans from corrupt manipulation.”

Last year, a report from the U.S. House Judiciary Committee detailed how GARM sought to “effectively reduce the availability and monetization” through its members’ control of roughly 90% of worldwide advertising spending and how government regulators such as the European Commission and Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant actively encouraged the alliance to pressure Twitter (now X) to censor disfavored content.

The World Federation of Advertisers shut down GARM in 2024 after lawsuit from X’s current owner, Elon Musk.