Elon Musk Announces Legal Action Against 'Collaborators' After Scheme to Silence Conservatives Comes to Light
Elon Musk is threatening legal action after a House Judiciary Committee report called out a conspiracy against conservative media voices.
The committee report Tuesday highlighted three major efforts by the World Federation of Advertisers’ Global Alliance for Responsible Media initiative to muzzle conservatives.
One of them was aimed at Musk after he became the owner of Twitter, whose name was later changed to X.
“Having seen the evidence unearthed today by Congress, 𝕏 has no choice but to file suit against the perpetrators and collaborators in the advertising boycott racket,” the billionaire wrote Thursday in a post on X.
“Hopefully, some states will consider criminal prosecution,” Musk said.
Having seen the evidence unearthed today by Congress, 𝕏 has no choice but to file suit against the perpetrators and collaborators in the advertising boycott racket.
Hopefully, some states will consider criminal prosecution. https://t.co/5W4yf1wxVO
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2024
“Through GARM, large corporations, advertising agencies, and industry associations participated in boycotts and other coordinated action to demonetize platforms, podcasts, news outlets, and other content deemed disfavored by GARM and its members,” the committee’s report said.
“This collusion can have the effect of eliminating a variety of content and viewpoints available to consumers,” it said.
The report said the initiative “appears to have anti-democratic views of fundamental American freedoms.”
It said that after Musk bought Twitter, GARM coordinated a boycott and exulted when Twitter’s revenue dropped.
GARM also sought to organize an advertiser boycott of Joe Rogan’s podcast over his views about the COVID-19 vaccines, the committee’s report said.
Fox News, The Daily Wire and Breitbart were among the conservative media outlets the initiative attempted to throttle, according to the report. GARM sought to have their content labeled as “misinformation.”
GARM members colluded to cut Twitter’s revenue after Elon Musk’s acquisition.
As early as November of 2022, Danish energy company and GARM member Ørsted, contacted GARM to discuss “the Twitter situation” and “a possible boycott.” pic.twitter.com/Ekkv2ULuzz
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) July 10, 2024
In testimony to the panel, Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro said that “there is, in fact, an informal pressure system created by Democratic legislators, this White House, legacy media, advertisers and pseudo-objective ‘brand safety’ organizations. That system guarantees that advertising dollars flow only to left-wing media brands.”
Shapiro told lawmakers that targeted news sites “reach hundreds of millions of people with opinions and beliefs long established as within the mainstream of American conservative thought. GARM and its members have no respect for the beliefs of those people. They would like them marginalized and squashed.”
“It is time to stand up for the First Amendment in this Congress,” he said.
“The First Amendment was not designed to enable workarounds by elected officials,” Shapiro said. “It was directed at Congress. At you.
“And you’re abdicating your fundamental duty when you exert pressure on private companies to censor speech. Some in this room have been doing just that for years.
“We in the non-legacy media have been feeling the effects. In the name of the Constitution — and the name of democracy — this should stop.”
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