The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and eight states secured a settlement on April 15 that will prevent three major advertising agencies from engaging in unlawful media censorship.
The defendants Dentsu US, Inc., GroupM Worldwide LLC (doing business as WPP Media), and Publicis, Inc. will no longer enter into deals that require them to restrict working with certain clients, according to the settlement.
“A coordinated group of woke, powerful individuals attempted to suppress that Constitutional right by manipulating ad agencies into sabotaging the reach, revenue, and credibility of conservative voices,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement released on April 15.
The plaintiffs—including Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia—alleged that censorship deals between ad agencies and companies had been happening in the background during the past decade, which limited rising voices in the alternative and online media space….