Censorship Industry: GARM Members Receive Billions in Federal Contracts – Foundation for Freedom Online
The federal government is sending billions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer money to four of the big six global advertising agencies, which include some of the leading architects of online censorship.
These multinational corporations have spent much of the last decade demanding online censorship of hate speech, disinformation, and harmful content on social media platforms, all while being paid by U.S. taxpayers, who overwhelmingly support free speech.
Since 2019, the industry has sought to pressure social media companies through the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), a project of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), a body that account for roughly 90 percent of all ad spending worldwide.
As demonstrated in a recent report by the House Judiciary Committee, GARM exerted pressure against platforms that host controversial or disfavored speech, using its influence over the internet s revenue streams to push for stricter censorship standards.
The report revealed a number of incidents of GARM s relentless drive to punish any site or platform that deviated from brand safe speech: