House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan has given a hard deadline to the American subsidiary of Japanese company Dentsu a hard deadline to provide documents related to what it has described as a potential sabotage of conservative media outlets.
The decision comes as Jordan is seeking to investigate whether the company is engaging in activity similar to the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) an advertising consortium the body previously probed for the same reason.
GARM ended up "discontinuing" its activities after the probe and an antitrust lawsuit filed by Elon Musk's X against the World Federation of Advertisers, of which GARM was a part.
They alleged that companies that were part of the consortium, including Adidas, McDonalds, Goldman Sachs and Red Bull, were engaging in "coordinated action" including "boycotts of disfavored social media platforms, podcasts and news outlets."
It named The Joe Rogan Experience, The Daily Wire, Breitbart News, Fox News "or other conservative media"as examples of outlets that were targeted. The organization said that it created frameworks to provide common definitions around concepts like hate speech, brand safety and misinformation. It didn't advise companies on where or how to spend their budgets.
However, the House Judiciary Committee said GARM "has deviated far from its original intent, and has collectively used its immense market power to demonetize voices and viewpoints the group disagrees with."
Jordan said in a letter that Dentsu, a founding member of GARM, "has started a new coalition of the world's largest marketers with striking similarities to GARM." "According to public reporting, the new Dentsu Coalition is 'aimed at fostering substantial and sustainable investments in credible news.'"
Dentsu wants to be the new GARM. We’re on it. pic.twitter.com/BAbuSrhPrF
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) October 3, 2024
For that reason, he is asking the company for "all documents and communications referring or relating to GARM and; all documents and communications referring or relating to any reorganization of GARM or its functions following its discontinuation and disbandment."
The lawmaker gave the company until October 17 to provide the documentation, adding that "Dentsu's coordinated actions may be illegal." "As outlined in the Committee's report, the anticompetitive effects of GARM's actions were severe. For example, as the Committee detailed, initiatives like GARM starve disfavored news outlets of crucial funding," Jordan added to back his claim.
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