Global advertising group falsely claimed it didn't blacklist Elon Musk's Twitter: Judiciary GOP

The leader of the World Federation of Advertisers' Global Alliance for Responsible Media falsely claimed it did not direct its members to blacklist Twitter after Elon Musk purchased the platform, since renamed X, according to a House Judiciary Committee GOP interim staff report.

Rob Rakowitz's claim during his transcribed interview with the committee is contradicted by a GARM member's documentation of "discussions about the boycott, noting that the company had pulled advertisements from Twitter based on GARM's recommendations," a committee press release Monday says.

The report documents how GARM "participated in boycotts and coordinated action to demonetize platforms, podcasts, news outlets, and other content that GARM and its members deem disfavored," particularly Musk's platform because its new owner exposed Twitter's previous censorship, Joe Rogan's podcast for his COVID-19 views and a President Trump 2020 campaign ad that claimed challenger Joe Biden "REFUSED drug test & DECLINED an earpiece inspection!"

Documents obtained by the committee show "an anti-conservative bias that permeates GARM's board of directors," who discussed placing The Daily Wire, Fox News and Breitbart on the "exclusion lists" by GroupM, a board member, the press release says.

The report was released shortly before an antitrust hearing featuring conservative commentator and Daily Wire cofounder Ben Shapiro, Unilever USA President Herrish Patel and GroupM Global CEO Christian Juhl.

The committee is investigating "whether existing civil and criminal penalties and current antitrust law enforcement efforts are sufficient to deter anticompetitive collusion in online advertising," it said.