House demands info from dozens of major businesses over ties to shadowy ad cartel GARM in collusion probe over free speech

The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday sent letters to more than 40 major companies in its ongoing probe of a left-leaning advertising cartel that has allegedly sought to defund news outlets and platforms, including The Post.

The panel, chaired by Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), asked the companies — which included Adidas, American Express, Bayer, BP, Carhartt, Chanel, CVS, General Motors and Goldman Sachs — to preserve documents and provide information pertaining to their activities with the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM).

“The Committee has learned that collusive activity is occurring within the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, of which your company is a member,” the letter began.

“In particular, the Committee has uncovered evidence of coordinated action by GARM and its member companies, including boycotts of disfavored social media platforms, podcasts, and news outlets.”

GARM, an initiative of the World Federation of Advertisers headed by radical activist Rob Rakowitz, exerts control over some 90% of global marketing spending — and uses its big-bucks leverage to go after free speech online, according to a bombshell House Judiciary Committee report released this month.

GARM “has deviated far from its original intent, and has collectively used its immense market power to demonetize voices and viewpoints the group disagrees with,” the committee’s letter said.

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The letter also noted that Rakowitz has “espoused views stating that a problem with advertising was an ‘extreme global interpretation of the US Constitution.'”

GARM allegedly directed companies to direct away ad dollars from right-leaning outlets such as Daily Wire, Fox News and Joe Rogan’s popular Spotify podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience.”

The Post has sought comment from Rakowitz.

Will Gilroy, a spokesperson for the World Federation Alliance, called the committee’s allegations of anti-competitive behavior “unfounded.”

“GARM is not involved in operational steps relative to monetization eligibility, content ratings, platform assessments or media investment decisions,” Girlroy said.

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“The decision where and when to advertise is always down to the individual advertiser, in collaboration with their agency partners where relevant.

The committee’s report accused Rakowitz of telling GARM’s member companies to rely on left-leaning “fact-checkers” such as Global Disinformation Index (GDI) and NewsGuard.

In 2022, GDI, a taxpayer-funded London-based group, unveiled an ad blacklist of 10 news outlets whose opinion sections tilted conservative or libertarian, including The Post, RealClearPolitics and Reason.

In an email to GARM members obtained by the committee last month, Rakowitz wrote that he wanted to “ensure you’re working with an inclusion and exclusion list that is informed by trusted partners such as NewsGuard and GDI — both partners to GARM and many of our members.”

The committee also obtained documents which showed that GARM members were told not to run ads on X, which was then known as Twitter, after Musk purchased the platform in the fall of 2022.

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Musk bought Twitter with the idea of loosening content moderation policies and re-platforming right-leaning voices that had been barred from the site, including former President Donald Trump and the satirical outlet “Babylon Bee.”

The tech mogul has threatened legal action against GARM , calling it an “advertising boycott racket” that has targeted contributed to a revenue crunch at X.

An email dated April 14 of last year found that an employee of Danish energy company Ørsted emailed Rakowitz and other WFA leaders to say that [b]ased on your recommendations, we have stopped all paid advertisement [on Twitter]” but added that it is “an important platform for us to reach our audience, so we would like to consider going back.”

Rakowitz denied in a deposition before the committee that he urged Ørsted to stop advertising on Twitter.

Records obtained by House Republicans also show that Spotify, which was looking to join GARM, was told by one of its members, the ad giant GroupM, that it needed to censor Rogan due to his controversial views on vaccines.

An email dated Jan. 27, 2022, showed that GroupM’s managing partner for brand safety, Joe Barone, told Spotify that GroupM would “conduct a complete Trust & Safety review of the Spotify platform and policies” and “begin that process immediately.”

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