On Thursday, Paxton announced he had launched an investigation into advertisers for the apparent crime of
not advertising on Elon Musk’s ExTwitter platform:
Attorney General Paxton is investigating a possible coordinated plan or conspiracy to withhold advertising dollars from certain social media platforms by pressuring advertisers not to purchase online advertising space. Although companies are free to choose when and where they want to advertise, a conspiracy among companies along these lines can result in harm to compe ion and may violate the Texas Free Enterprise and An rust Act of 1983. The civil investigative demand requests do ents and information related to WFA and its sub-organization known as the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (“GARM”) organizing their membership to potentially boycott social media platforms that are deemed to violate their “Brand Safety Standards.”
“It is completely unacceptable and un-American that the Department of Justice under the Biden Administration failed to enforce an rust laws against its perceived political allies,” said Attorney General Paxton. “Trade organizations and companies cannot collude to block advertising revenue from en ies they wish to undermine. Today’s do ent request is part of an ongoing investigation to hold WFA and its members accountable for any attempt to rig the system to harm organizations they might disagree with.”
This is monstrously gross partisan hackery against completely understandable marketplace decisions. But it gives you a good sense of the kind of hackery to expect over the next few years. Daring not to give Trump allies money will be seen as “illegal boycotts.”
By launching this bad-faith investigation into advertisers’ choices, Paxton is wielding the power of the state to bully companies into supporting his political allies. This is a blatant effort to chill the speech of Musk’s critics and coerce businesses into spending money on his platform, even if they object to how it’s being run. It’s an authoritarian tactic masquerading as an an rust probe.
Reply With Quote
