FTC pushes ad agencies into dropping brand safety rules

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and a group of eight states have announced a proposed settlement with big ad agencies that will prevent them from working together to avoid certain platforms like X based on their political viewpoints.

In a complaint, the FTC argues that ad agencies violated antitrust rules by agreeing to a common set of brand safety rules, which would disfavor sites and services deemed to contain content like misinformation. That includes establishing groups like the World Federation of Advertisers' now-defunct Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) to coordinate collective brand safety efforts.

GARM was named as …

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