Global Alliance for Responsible Media disputes X lawsuit but stops operations.

The SLAPP seems to working as intended.

An advertising industry initiative targeted by an Elon Musk lawsuit is “discontinuing” its activities and has deleted the member list from its website.

Stephan Loerke, the CEO of the WFA, wrote in an email to members, seen by Business Insider, that the decision was “not made lightly” but that GARM is a not-for-profit organization with limited resources.

Today, the House Judiciary GOP’s official account on X called GARM being discontinued a “big win for the First Amendment” and a “big win for oversight.” X CEO Linda Yaccarino also applauded the news.

  • Sequentialsilence@lemmy.world
    39·
    5 months ago

    Can someone explain like I’m dumb? This sounds bad, because a non profit is being bullied into shutting down because of a lawsuit, but it’s also being hailed as a first amendment win, which sounds like the opposite of what is happening.

    • 👍Maximum Derek👍@discuss.tchncs.deOPEnglish
      692·
      5 months ago

      Republicans call it a first amendment win because GARM would tell advertisers when their ads are running on platforms along side dangerous or illegal content. And they equate being given carte blanche to spread any and all harmful content on social media with free speech.

    • Matt@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      25·
      5 months ago

      The Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) is a cross-industry initiative established in 2019 by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) to help the industry address the challenge of illegal or harmful content on digital media platforms and its monetization via advertising. https://wfanet.org/leadership/garm/about-garm

  • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
    351·
    5 months ago

    If there is ever a blindingly obvious moral and utilitarian imperative to stand up for what’s right, you can count on the advertising industry to do the opposite

    e;

  • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
    12·
    5 months ago

    with any luck it will result in more companies pulling advertising from the platform and then pulling from all companies ever tied to Musk. He has proven to be poison to what he comes into contact with.

    • TheFriar@lemm.ee
      81·
      5 months ago

      Well, yeah, it’s the ad industry. But this was a non profit that alerted advertisers when their ads were being pushed by/alongside hate content. So not like an advertising agency shutting down, but an initiative to stop supporting hate with advertising. So not a win for anyone but hate groups and those who want to support/promote them.

      • Supermariofan67@programming.dev
        6·
        5 months ago

        I think there’s a bit more to it than that.

        It’s very unfortunate that this came as a result of a baseless tantrum from Elon. And his arguments are contrary to free speech.

        That said… GARM is actually bad, and the world is a better place without it in my opinion. They are frequently involved in censoring legitimate journalism of violent events, anything that’s inappropriate from children, etc. You know how so many YouTubers have to carefully tiptoe around mention of controversial topics, even in non-controversial contexts, for fear of getting demonetized? I understand the POV of avoiding advertising near hate, but the fallout has real consequences when legitimate content is inevitably caught up.

        https://www.techdirt.com/2024/08/09/jim-jordan-celebrates-successful-speech-suppression-as-a-claimed-win-for-free-speech/

        Another way to see it is that GARM is simply a trade organization by advertisers for advertisers, with one single goal: to maximize profits for the advertising industry. No corporation actually cares about ethics; it’s just that appearing to be ethical is often profitable, and in this case, advertisers believe that avoiding advertising near controversial content is better for their bottom line. If one believes that advertising is one of the most abusive industries in our modern society, it could be seen that anything to make it a little harder for advertisers to extract more profits is a win.