Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Newsmax on Wednesday that a report released by the House Judiciary Committee, which he chairs, showed how a massive coalition of corporations, advertising agencies, and industry associations coordinated to control online speech.
The interim staff report, released earlier in the day, showed how the Global Alliance for Responsible Media initiative by the World Federation of Advertisers participated in boycotts and coordinated action to demonetize platforms, podcasts, news outlets, and other content that GARM and its members disfavored.
The Judiciary Committee held a hearing Wednesday on whether existing civil and criminal penalties and antitrust law enforcement efforts are sufficient to deter anticompetitive collusion in online advertising.
"By basically demonetizing conservative platforms and websites, you make it that tough for those ideas to be heard," Jordan told "Rob Schmitt Tonight." "We asked the question for one of the companies who is on the board of this organization GARM, Global Alliance for Responsible Media — misnamed, should be named HARM — one of the companies that was there.
"I said, do you advertise on the Daily Wire? Do they advertise on Newsmax? Do they advertise on Breitbart?
"And the answer to those questions was no. But they advertise on 'The View.' They advertise in The Washington Post. So it's totally biased. We all know that instinctively, but now we have documents that show it."
Jordan said one document contained in the report showed the evident disdain a person from GARM's board had for three conservative outlets. He also talked about details of an alleged effort by GARM to boycott the X social media platform after Elon Musk purchased the company in October 2022.
"They use this term 'uncommon collaboration,' which is a fancy way of saying it's a cartel, and we're going to set these standards," Jordan said. "But the standards are such that they're so subjective.
"They can sort of be gotten around any way you want. And then all they really do is advertise on left sides or where there are sites with no politics, and they never seem to put any advertising dollars or very little when it comes to conservative platforms and conservative websites."
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