Linda Yaccarino, CEO of Elon Musk’s X, has announced her determination to lead a complete reset of the advertising industry following the company’s antitrust lawsuit against the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and its GARM censorship organization. In an interview with Axios on Tuesday, Yaccarino emphasized the need for ecosystem-wide reform and a comprehensive reset of the advertising industry.
X remains committed to pursuing legal action against the WFA and other named defendants, including CVS Health and Orsted. The lawsuit accuses the WFA and its initiative, GARM, of illegally conspiring to boycott the social media platform following Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition in late 2022, resulting in billions of dollars in lost revenue for X.
Breitbart News editor in chief Alex Marlow recently explained to PragerU the threat WFA and its allies pose to the future of conservatives on the internet, with the organization attempting to use economic warfare to shut down dissent with leftist politics.
Yaccarino believes that GARM is merely a symptom of a larger problem plaguing the advertising ecosystem. GARM was just a symptom, but [finding] the root cause of the entire ecosystem being broken, that’s what the suit is about,” she explained to Axios. She added that the advertisers’ alleged actions constituted an “illegal coordination of efforts” targeting X and other conservative-leaning news and media companies.
The WFA, which controls approximately 90 percent of global marketing communications spending (roughly $900 billion per year), has yet to comment on the ongoing legal proceedings. Texas District Judge Reed O’Connor recently recused himself from the case after reports emerged that he owned stock in Tesla, another company helmed by Elon Musk.