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An ad industry group named in X\u2019s antitrust lawsuit is \u201cdiscontinuing,\u201d two days after the social media company filed a lawsuit accusing major advertisers of an \u201cillegal boycott\u201d against the company. The Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) is \u201cdiscontinuing activities,\u201d according to an email reported by<\/a> Business Insider.<\/em><\/p>\n GARM was created in 2019 to help set brand safety guidelines for major advertisers, and is part of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), which was also named in <\/a>. According to Business Insider<\/em>, WFA CEO Stephan Loerke told members that GARM is a nonprofit with limited resources, but that the groups planned on fighting the lawsuit.<\/p>\n X CEO Linda Yaccarino said the news was \u201can important acknowledgement and a necessary step in the right direction\u201d in a statement <\/a>. The company\u2019s lawsuit, which was filed in Texas, claims that the WFA, GARM and a handful of major advertisers \u201cconspired \u2026 to collectively withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue from Twitter.\u201d X faced steep declines in its ad revenue over the last two years as advertisers have <\/a> following multiple reports about hate speech and antisemitic content on the platform.<\/p>\n GRAM was previously named in a House Judiciary Committee report that alleged the group had an \u201canti-conservative bias\u201d and engaged in “anti-competitive” behavior. It has called those allegations \u201cunfounded.\u201d In a statement on <\/a> earlier this week, the group pointed out that it was formed in the wake of a mass shooting that was streamed live on Facebook, with the goal of addressing the monetization of harmful content online. \u201cSuggestions that GARM practices may impinge on free speech are a deliberate misrepresentation of GARM\u2019s work,\u201d it wrote. \u201cGARM is not a watchdog or lobby. GARM does not participate in or advocate for boycotts of any kind.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n