WFA discontinues GARM

The Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) was a voluntary cross-industry initiative created in 2019 to address digital safety. GARM was set up in the wake of the Christchurch New Zealand Mosque shootings during which the killer livestreamed the attack on Facebook. This followed a slew of high-profile cases where brands’ ads appeared next to illegal or harmful content, such as promoting terrorism or child pornography – creating both consumer and reputational issues for brands.

Since its launch, GARM has enhanced transparency in ad placements on digital social media by providing voluntary and pro-competitive tools for the advertising industry. These tools provide information to help advertisers avoid inadvertently supporting harmful and illegal content, reducing such ads from 6.1% in 2020 to 1.7% in 2023. GARM’s toolset includes the Brand Safety Floor and the Adjacency Standards Framework, which have supported brand owners in their independent development of their own bespoke, brand-specific safety frameworks to ensure that their advertising dollars do not inadvertently support illegal or harmful content that damages their brands.

GARM is a small, not-for-profit initiative, and recent allegations that unfortunately misconstrue its purpose and activities have caused a distraction and significantly drained its resources and finances. WFA therefore is making the difficult decision to discontinue GARM activities.

For further enquiries, please contact Will Gilroy at w.gilroy@wfanet.org.

9 August 2024