On Feb. 6, NewsGuard confirmed that it received a CID letter in a new lawsuit against the FTC and chairman Andrew Ferguson. Much like GDI’s lawsuit, NewsGuard claims that the federal agency unlawfully levied its regulatory power against the organization to retaliate against and censor NewsGuard, claiming it went so far as to bar ad agency holding company Omnicom from doing business with NewsGuard.
Launched last summer, the FTC’s investigation arrived less than a year after a congressional investigation determined that members of a preeminent coalition of advertising organizations known as the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, or GARM, colluded to withhold ad spend from right-leaning outlets like Fox News, The Daily Wire, and Breitbart. It was a finding that prompted X, under the oversight of Elon Musk, to sue GARM and its parent the World Federation of Advertisers, alleging they pressured advertisers into boycotting sites including X. GARM shuttered days after the lawsuit was filed.
