A World Economic Forum-affiliated (WEF) advertising group called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) is under the gun for allegedly ringleading an online censorship scheme using U.S. taxpayer dollars.
Some members of GARM say the world's biggest brands are colluding to deprive certain online platforms of advertising revenue if they allow forms of speech that are banned on other more compliant platforms, all under the guise of "brand safety."
Congress looked into the "brand safety" scheme and determined that it is being used as a smokescreen to impose mass censorship online. It is also being used to blacklist certain "disfavored" brands, creators and content by depriving them of advertising revenue.
GARM's influence spans across at least six of the world's top global advertising agencies. It also boasts many of the world's biggest brands and corporations, which fuel its behemoth power and influence over online advertising cashflow.
According to the Foundation for Freedom Online (FFO), four advertising agencies that are part of GARM receive billions in U.S. taxpayer monies to fuel their agenda. These include the Interpublic Group (IPG), Omnicom, WPP and Publicis Groupe.
"The last of these, Publicis Groupe (which has ties with the controversial outfit NewsGuard) has a subsidiary called Plowshare Group LLC that has a contract, valid until 2025, worth $394.2 million with the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department of the US government," reported Reclaim the Net.
"Two other subsidiaries – Sapient Government Solutions and OnPoint consulting – whose business is to secure government contracts, 'also received hundreds of millions of dollars over the years from a variety of government agencies,' reports the Foundation for Freedom Online."
(Related: Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski claims that Media Matters is trying to harm the video platform by misleading the public and advertisers about the content available on it.)
Big government is big business
An Omnicom subsidiary called DDB Chicago Inc. currently has a 10-year contract worth $4 billion that allows it to manage the U.S. Army's marketing account. Ketchum, another Omnicom subsidiary, has a $247 million contract with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The U.S. Air Force paid GSD&M Idea City LLC, yet another Omnicom subsidiary, $741 million to produce recruitment ads.
Another company called DXTRA Inc., a subsidiary of IPG, works with the HHS as well in a more than $1.1 billion deal. MullenLowe, also with IPG, has a $454 million contract "to maintain the Department of Defense's Joint Advertising, Market Research & Studies program (JAMRS), which recruits for all branches of the military."
WPP's two subsidiaries likewise have ties to the U.S. military-industrial complex. VMLY&R maintains a five-year, $455 million contract with the U.S. Navy while Wunderman Thompson produces ads for the U.S. Marines, which it has been doing for several decades now.
"WPP also owns the world's leading media buying agency GroupM," explains an FFO report about the collusion.
GroupM CEO Christian Juhl, by the way, recently testified before the House Judiciary Committee to defend the actions of GARM to control advertising revenue worldwide.
X is suing GARM, by the way, claiming to be a victim of its advertising revenue deprivation schemes. At the direction of Elon Musk, X wants restitution from GARM and several of its corporate members, including CVS Health, Orsted, Mars and Unilever.
The WFA created GARM in 2019 right before the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) "pandemic" was unleashed. Right-wing media outlets like the Daily Wire claim GARM colluded with GroupM to discourage clients from purchasing ads on its site due to its political leanings.
The House Judiciary Committee declared that following an investigation, GARM was determined to use "shadowy corporate coordination" to silence conservative voices online.
More related news content can be found at Censorship.news.
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