The coalition of advertisers described by X Corp. owner Elon Musk as a “cabal” has shut down after X hit it with a lawsuit earlier this week.

The group, the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, or GARM, was formed in 2019 by the World Federation of Advertisers, or WFA, in an effort to encourage boycotts of social media platforms that were accused of not meeting various safety standards. When a group of major advertisers belonging to GARM did this with X, the company said it was a conspiracy and an “illegal boycott” that cost the platform “billions.”

This came after a congressional committee in July held a hearing on “collusion in the Global Alliance for Responsible Media,” which targeted advertising companies for “anticompetitive collusion in online advertising.” The committee believed that GARM had engaged in “indirect tactics to target disfavored platforms.”

When the news about the lawsuit hit this week, experts weighed in, saying it was likely that GARM and the companies working under it would be protected by the First Amendment, but WFA Chief Executive Stephen Loerke said today that there weren’t enough resources to fight the lawsuit, despite the decision to disband “not made lightly.”

“No small group should be able to monopolize what gets monetized,” X CEO Linda Yaccarino said today. “This is an important acknowledgment and a necessary step in the right direction. I am hopeful that it means ecosystem-wide reform is coming.”

As for Musk (pictured), he has always had a tempestuous relationship with advertisers and also certain parts of the media. When asked in an interview last year what he thought about advertisers pulling their ads from X because of fears the platform was allowing too much hate speech or misinformation to proliferate, Musk replied: “If somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.”

He’s certainly no darling of the media, but he has support from a number of politicians. After the news today about GARM, the X account for Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee said, “Big win for the First Amendment. Big win for oversight.”

Photo: U.K. government/Flickr