Ad industry coalition targeted by conservatives
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Screenshot of The Daily Wire co-founder Ben SHapiro testifying at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on June 10.
The Daily Wire, a conservative commentary and entertainment company, has sent letters to major corporations asking them to "reject" a powerful third-party ad industry coalition that it believes has colluded with agencies, brands, and tech platforms "to demonetize conservative media outlets."
The big picture: The letter references a report published earlier this month by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee that argues the coalition used "shadowy corporate coordination" to silence conservatives.
Catch up quick: The coalition, called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), was created by members of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) in 2019 to set standards around brand safety for digital advertisers. Members includes major tech companies, advertisers, agencies, ad tech firms and advertising coalitions.
State of play: Lawmakers from the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month held a hearing about complaints GARM was colluding with ad-buying giant GroupM to discourage clients from buying ads in the Daily Wire because of its conservative politics.
- Emails between brand safety executives at GroupM and GARM's leader and co-founder were presented as evidence during the hearing to suggest GARM and GroupM were broadly targeting conservative media companies.
- Ben Shapiro, the Daily Wire's co-founder; Christian Juhl, the outgoing global CEO of GroupM; Herrish Patel, Unilever USA's president; and Spencer Weber, an antitrust lawyer at the Waller Loyola University Chicago School of Law, all testified at the hearing.
Zoom in: In the letter to advertisers, The Daily Wire argued that while it supports free speech and doesn't oppose rating agencies providing tools for advertisers to make informed decisions, it's concerned that GARM and its members "have privately wielded their considerable concentration" of the market to "target and attempt to bankrupt" conservative media.
- The Daily Wire called for "further investigations by Congress to fully understand the depth and breadth of this apparent censorship cartel, as well as to halt any government coordination with these sophisticated and coercive campaigns against free speech," according to a copy of the letter obtained by Axios.
- GARM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Between the lines: The strongest piece of evidence presented by conservative lawmakers in the hearing was an email exchange between GroupM brand safety executives and GARM's leader about how GroupM manages brand safety inquiries about conservative outlets like The Daily Wire.
- The GroupM executive referenced previous discussions about another conservative outlet, Breitbart, in its response, writing, "As much as we hated their ideology and bulls--t, we couldn't really justify blocking them for misguided opinion. We watched them very carefully and it didn't take long for them to cross the line[.]"
Reality check: Congress rarely intervenes in intra-industry disputes like this.
- While further investigations could shed more light on the issue, it likely would be up to the broader advertising industry that's part of GARM to determine whether any changes should be made to GARM's approach to brand safety recommendations.
- GARM is considered a helpful tool by many players in the ad industry, letting them hand off to a third party potentially controversial calls about the acceptability of particular advertising environments.
What to watch: If Republicans maintain control of the House next year, conservative outlets could push for more hearings on the issue.
- In the past, conservative-led chambers of Congress have pushed for hearings about charges of censorship by Big Tech firms, but the legislature has never enacted new laws or regulations based on such inquiries.
