Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched an investigation into a shadowy left-wing advertising cabal for whether it participated in an “organized plan or conspiracy” to boycott “certain social media platforms,” he said. The office announced Thursday.
Paxton said the powerful Global Advertising Federation and its now-defunct non-profit, the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), have warned advertisers to “not buy online ad space from sites that violate their brand safety standards.” We are investigating whether there was any pressure on him.
GARM and its members believe that the House Judiciary Committee's damning report, released in July, has suppressed free speech online and that they have been forced to advertise in numerous media outlets, including the Post and Elon Musk's X. faced intense scrutiny after denouncing systematic efforts to restrict it.
Republicans requested documents and information from WFA and GARM as part of a civil investigation. Paxton said evidence of collusive boycotts could violate state antitrust laws.
“Trade associations and companies cannot conspire to block advertising revenue from organizations they wish to undermine,” Paxton said in a statement. “Today's document request is part of an ongoing investigation to hold WFA and its members accountable for any attempts to game the system to the detriment of organizations with which they disagree.”
WFA did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
Shortly after Paxton announced the WFA investigation, Musk posted on X, “This is still a huge problem.”
The House report cites evidence including internal emails from Robert Rakowitz, a radical executive at seemed to be boasting that its sales were “80% below sales forecasts.''
In response to this revelation, Musk filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against WFA, GARM, and a handful of major advertisers for allegedly organizing an advertising boycott.
The boycott cost X “billions of dollars in advertising revenue,” according to the lawsuit.
WFA and GARM strongly denied any wrongdoing. However, GARM shut down in August due to mounting legal costs in the fight against Musk.
In October, X announced that it had reached a settlement with one of the defendants, Unilever. Unilever had plans for its brands to resume advertising on the platform.
Antitrust claims against other defendants are still pending.
