Elon Musk’s social media platform X has reached a settlement with the World Federation of Advertisers, ending a contentious legal battle that began in 2024 over allegations of an advertising boycott.
TechCrunch reports that the settlement between X and the advertising trade group was announced in a joint statement on Wednesday, bringing to a close Musk’s effort to hold advertisers legally accountable for reducing their spending on the platform due to brand safety concerns.
X had filed a lawsuit against the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) in 2024, accusing the organization of orchestrating what it described as a systematic illegal boycott of the platform. The lawsuit came after X experienced a significant decline in advertising revenue following Musk’s acquisition of the social network for $44 billion in 2022. Among the companies named in the lawsuit were major brands including Mars, CVS Health, Shell, and Lego. The accused advertisers denied the allegations and maintained that brands have the right to choose where they allocate their advertising budgets.
The legal proceedings took a turn in March when a federal court dismissed the lawsuit. The presiding judge determined that X had not successfully demonstrated that it suffered harm under federal competition laws. Despite this setback, X filed an appeal in April, attempting to continue the legal fight.
The joint statement released by both parties stated that the WFA and X are moving past the litigation, emphasizing that the settlement resets the relationship between the two organizations.
At the center of X’s allegations was the claim that advertisers reduced their spending on the platform because of guidelines developed by the WFA’s Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM). GARM was a coalition of brands and advertising agencies created to establish standards designed to prevent advertisements from appearing alongside harmful online content.
In practice, GARM worked to censor conservatives online. Breitbart News previously reported that GARM was a primary topic of a major FTC settlement with advertising giants over collusion to censor conservative outlets:
The FTC said in a complaint filed on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas that WPP, Dentsu, and Publicis coordinated on policies that limited the number of ads that ran on sites with content that the industry had identified as misinformation. The policy resulted in fewer ads running on media outlets such as Breitbart News, punishing outlets that ran content that was “lawful but disfavored.” The filing explained that these advertisers sought to impose common “brand safety” standards across the digital advertising industry. The FTC stated that the ad agencies, with their primary competitors, Omnicom and IPG, operated through their trade associations to establish a “Brand Safety Floor” to combat “misinformation.”
“The ad agencies’ brand-safety conspiracy turned competition in the market for ad-buying services on its head,” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a written statement. “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.”
According to the joint statement, the World Federation of Advertisers reiterated its dedication to freedom of speech, a principle that has been part of the organization’s founding constitution since 1953. The statement noted that this is a principle shared by both WFA and X. Significantly, the statement revealed that on August 9, 2024, WFA discontinued GARM. The organization committed that it will not form or restart GARM or any similar initiative in the future. Both WFA and X expressed alignment in their view that brands, platforms, and consumers will all benefit from innovation in brand safety.
The settlement marks a significant shift in the relationship between X and the advertising industry. After years of tension and legal battles, both parties appear ready to move forward. The discontinuation of GARM removes a major point of contention, while the joint commitment to brand safety innovation suggests a potential path toward rebuilding trust between the platform and advertisers.
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Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.