The following is the text of a letter sent by The Daily Wire to advertising industry professionals to highlight the findings of the House Judiciary Committee’s investigation into GARM, the Global Alliance for Responsible Media. A PDF of the letter can be viewed here.
———
An Open Letter to our Advertising Industry Colleagues
Re: U.S. House Judiciary Report on GARM Censorship Cartel
Dear Colleague,
Earlier today the House Judiciary Committee released a shocking report detailing its findings after a months-long investigation into what it describes as “apparent collusion” between the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (“GARM”) and some of the world’s largest brands, advertising holding companies, and social media platforms to demonetize conservative media outlets.
The Committee’s report details the scandalous perspective of GARM leader and co-founder, Mr. Rob Rakowitz, in never-before-disclosed emails. Mr. Rakowitz articulates his frustration with “extreme global interpretations of the US Constitution”, including “people advocating for freedom of speech online” and “taking US norms and applying them globally,” while “using principles of governance and applying them as literal law from 230 years ago (made by white men exclusively).” Mr. Rakowitz acknowledges “the professional fallout would be horrendous” if his opinion on this matter were to be publicly disclosed.
The Committee found evidence of GARM leadership and GARM Steer Team members discussing how to target conservative media like The Daily Wire, Breitbart, and Fox News. When specifically discussing The Daily Wire, one GARM member – an executive at GroupM – communicated to Mr. Rakowitz that: “I don’t know Daily Wire that well, but I would imagine that most of our clients wouldn’t want to be on either side of politically divisive content, so they probably block them anyway – but we should watch them carefully to make sure they don’t stoop below the GARM floor. If we block DW – why wouldn’t we block Fox News?” Another GroupM executive confirmed, “Fyi we have Daily Wire on our Global High Risk exclusion list, categorized as Conspiracy Theories…”
According to the report, Mr. Rakowitz regularly directs GARM members to use exclusion and inclusion lists from “trusted partners” like NewsGuard and GDI in order to “continue to give a leg up to professional news outlets.” Mr. Rakowitz continued, “we’re eager to make sure that ad dollars and media platforms stay clear of bad actors.”
Mr. Rakowitz describes GARM as, “the first ever consortium that’s brought together multiple global advertisers […], all of the agency holding companies, and significant media platforms.” The goal of GARM, according to Mr. Rakowitz, “is to remove harmful content from advertiser-supported media on digital media platforms, and ensure that the industry works together to ensure that this is prioritized by executives and enabled by media experts and technicians.”
GARM’s Brand Safety Floor and Suitability Framework includes standards targeting objectively criminal, abusive, and dangerous content; however, GARM also includes subjective standards that, in practice, are used to target conservative media for merely discussing debated and sensitive topics in a manner that is disfavored by GARM and its leadership. The application of the subjective elements of GARM’s Brand Safety Floor also frequently lead to conservative media content being erroneously maligned as misinformation, harassment, or even hate speech.
Based on the Committee’s findings, it appears that GARM’s two primary objectives are: (1) the accumulation of power; and (2) to bankrupt media companies, content producers, and even social media platforms who do not fall into lock step with GARM. According to the report, “The threat Mr. Rakowitz can pose to an entire platform is enormous, evidenced by his taking credit for Twitter’s revenue decline.”
We at The Daily Wire do not oppose rating agencies providing tools and information to advertisers so that they can make informed, targeted advertising placement decisions, and we do not feel entitled to earn advertising spending from advertisers merely because of our position in the marketplace. We are, however, gravely concerned with how GARM and its leaders have privately wielded their considerable concentration of market power – 90% of all ad spend worth $1 trillion – to target and attempt to bankrupt conservative media like The Daily Wire, and we are now calling for further investigations by Congress to fully understand the depth and breadth of this apparent censorship cartel, as well as to immediately halt any government coordination with these sophisticated and coercive campaigns against free speech.
Indeed, we have recently sued the U.S. State Department over alleged coordination with GARM’s own “trusted partners” NewsGuard and GDI, among others, to target The Daily Wire and other conservative media.
Because today’s Congressional report has highlighted the intentions and apparently collusive behavior of GARM and its members, we are asking that you earnestly evaluate your commitment to principles of free speech and that you reject GARM, Mr. Rakowitz, and any similar actors’ efforts to subvert conservative media.
If it is true that an informed public is essential to a functioning representative democracy, then everyone should oppose efforts to suppress conservative media’s vital role – and Constitutional mandate – to help preserve a free and open society.
We ask that you take a stand on the side of freedom with The Daily Wire and other conservative media on this issue.
Please do not hesitate to reach out and we look forward to speaking with each of our advertising industry colleagues about this important issue very soon.
With Kind Regards,
The Daily Wire
[#item_full_content]
[[{“value”:”
The following is the text of a letter sent by The Daily Wire to advertising industry professionals to highlight the findings of the House Judiciary Committee’s investigation into GARM, the Global Alliance for Responsible Media. A PDF of the letter can be viewed here.
———
An Open Letter to our Advertising Industry Colleagues
Re: U.S. House Judiciary Report on GARM Censorship Cartel
Dear Colleague,
Earlier today the House Judiciary Committee released a shocking report detailing its findings after a months-long investigation into what it describes as “apparent collusion” between the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (“GARM”) and some of the world’s largest brands, advertising holding companies, and social media platforms to demonetize conservative media outlets.
The Committee’s report details the scandalous perspective of GARM leader and co-founder, Mr. Rob Rakowitz, in never-before-disclosed emails. Mr. Rakowitz articulates his frustration with “extreme global interpretations of the US Constitution”, including “people advocating for freedom of speech online” and “taking US norms and applying them globally,” while “using principles of governance and applying them as literal law from 230 years ago (made by white men exclusively).” Mr. Rakowitz acknowledges “the professional fallout would be horrendous” if his opinion on this matter were to be publicly disclosed.
The Committee found evidence of GARM leadership and GARM Steer Team members discussing how to target conservative media like The Daily Wire, Breitbart, and Fox News. When specifically discussing The Daily Wire, one GARM member – an executive at GroupM – communicated to Mr. Rakowitz that: “I don’t know Daily Wire that well, but I would imagine that most of our clients wouldn’t want to be on either side of politically divisive content, so they probably block them anyway – but we should watch them carefully to make sure they don’t stoop below the GARM floor. If we block DW – why wouldn’t we block Fox News?” Another GroupM executive confirmed, “Fyi we have Daily Wire on our Global High Risk exclusion list, categorized as Conspiracy Theories…”
According to the report, Mr. Rakowitz regularly directs GARM members to use exclusion and inclusion lists from “trusted partners” like NewsGuard and GDI in order to “continue to give a leg up to professional news outlets.” Mr. Rakowitz continued, “we’re eager to make sure that ad dollars and media platforms stay clear of bad actors.”
Mr. Rakowitz describes GARM as, “the first ever consortium that’s brought together multiple global advertisers […], all of the agency holding companies, and significant media platforms.” The goal of GARM, according to Mr. Rakowitz, “is to remove harmful content from advertiser-supported media on digital media platforms, and ensure that the industry works together to ensure that this is prioritized by executives and enabled by media experts and technicians.”
GARM’s Brand Safety Floor and Suitability Framework includes standards targeting objectively criminal, abusive, and dangerous content; however, GARM also includes subjective standards that, in practice, are used to target conservative media for merely discussing debated and sensitive topics in a manner that is disfavored by GARM and its leadership. The application of the subjective elements of GARM’s Brand Safety Floor also frequently lead to conservative media content being erroneously maligned as misinformation, harassment, or even hate speech.
Based on the Committee’s findings, it appears that GARM’s two primary objectives are: (1) the accumulation of power; and (2) to bankrupt media companies, content producers, and even social media platforms who do not fall into lock step with GARM. According to the report, “The threat Mr. Rakowitz can pose to an entire platform is enormous, evidenced by his taking credit for Twitter’s revenue decline.”
We at The Daily Wire do not oppose rating agencies providing tools and information to advertisers so that they can make informed, targeted advertising placement decisions, and we do not feel entitled to earn advertising spending from advertisers merely because of our position in the marketplace. We are, however, gravely concerned with how GARM and its leaders have privately wielded their considerable concentration of market power – 90% of all ad spend worth $1 trillion – to target and attempt to bankrupt conservative media like The Daily Wire, and we are now calling for further investigations by Congress to fully understand the depth and breadth of this apparent censorship cartel, as well as to immediately halt any government coordination with these sophisticated and coercive campaigns against free speech.
Indeed, we have recently sued the U.S. State Department over alleged coordination with GARM’s own “trusted partners” NewsGuard and GDI, among others, to target The Daily Wire and other conservative media.
Because today’s Congressional report has highlighted the intentions and apparently collusive behavior of GARM and its members, we are asking that you earnestly evaluate your commitment to principles of free speech and that you reject GARM, Mr. Rakowitz, and any similar actors’ efforts to subvert conservative media.
If it is true that an informed public is essential to a functioning representative democracy, then everyone should oppose efforts to suppress conservative media’s vital role – and Constitutional mandate – to help preserve a free and open society.
We ask that you take a stand on the side of freedom with The Daily Wire and other conservative media on this issue.
Please do not hesitate to reach out and we look forward to speaking with each of our advertising industry colleagues about this important issue very soon.
With Kind Regards,
The Daily Wire
“}]]
