The Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), which has been accused of censoring online speech and attempting to silence media outlets such as Breitbart News, has received billions in federal contracts, according to a report by the Foundation for Freedom Online. These companies have a history of trying to curb or demonetize disfavored online speech.
The congressional investigation recently revealed overt political bias in GARM’s leadership, which is being used to control online speech and silence conservatives, according to the House Judiciary Committee. GARM co-founder Rob Rakowitz, for example, once criticized people “advocating for freedom of speech online,” and about the “extreme global interpretation of the US Constitution.” He has also criticized the U.S. Constitution for being written “by white men exclusively.
GARM and its members discussed a strategy of blocking certain news outlets like Fox News, The Daily Wire, and Breitbart News,” the report added, pointing to an email from a top executive associated with the coalition stating that he “hated their ideology and bullshit.
The congressional report went on to point out incidents where GARM has tried to punish any site or platform that strayed from “brand safe” speech. Other entities targeted by GARM include Elon Musk’s Twitter, now X, after it was initially purchased by the tech billionaire. The report states that GARM tried to direct all of its members—corporate giants like Coca-Cola and Unilever who together account for 90% of global advertising dollars—to “stop all paid advertisement” on the platform after Musk purchased it.
GARM also worked to pressure Spotify over Joe Rogan’s podcast, the report shows, specifically over the host’s claims that young, healthy people didn’t need a COVID vaccine. Rakowitz, GARM’s leader, admits in private emails that threats like the one it made to Spotify “gets us into hot water by way of anticompetitive and collusive behaviors.
John Montgomery, an executive at GroupM, the world’s largest media buying agency, wrote in an October 2021 email, “There is an interesting parallel here with Breitbart” after being asked about The Daily Wire.
The committee report concluded that “GARM likely violated federal antitrust laws,” saying that it found “direct evidence” that it was “demonetizing certain viewpoints to limit consumer choice” and therefore harmed consumers.
Colluding to suppress voices and views disfavored by the leading marketers at the world’s largest companies and advertising agencies is a demonstrated track record of trying to curb free speech on the largest social media platforms,” Foundation for Freedom Online reported.