How Elon Musk and X's decision to sue advertisers may have just backfired

Just earlier this week, Elon Musk’s X announced that it was suing the constituent members of an initiative known as the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM). On Thursday, just days after X’s federal antitrust lawsuit was filed, the organization behind GARM, the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), announced that it was dissolving GARM. The WFA and several corporations were the suit’s named defendants, not GARM itself.X claimed in its lawsuit that WFA and a number of its major advertising members “conspired” to “collectively withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue”After the news was announced, X CEO Linda Yaccarino took to X to celebrate GARM’s end. However, at least one adtech watchdog is claiming that this might actually backfire for X.GARM shuts downAccording to a letter from the WFA that was sent to its members, as first reported by Business Insider, the group was “discontinuing” GARM as a result of X’s lawsuit as the initiative was a non-profit with limited resources. The GARM initiative, which helped members avoid advertising on harmful websites, was staffed by only two full-time employees.However, the WFA will continue on and challenge X’s lawsuit, saying they committed no wrongdoing.The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee, whose report was used by X in its lawsuit, deemed GARM’s closure a “big win for the first amendment.” Tweet may have been deleted X CEO Linda Yaccarino quoted the House Judiciary Committee post in her own reply.”No small group should be able to monopolize what gets monetized,” Yaccarino said. “This is an important…How Elon Musk and X's decision to sue advertisers may have just backfired