Advertising body The Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) has disbanded, just days after X filed a lawsuit against it.

The group, which acted as a cross-industry initiative focused on helping advertisers reduce digital harm. X owner Musk announced earlier this week that he was suing advertisers and major brands over a massive “advertiser boycott”.

The group placed a statement on its website announcing the move. It read: “GARM is a small, not-for-profit initiative, and recent allegations that unfortunately miscontrue its purpose and activities have caused a distraction and significantly drained its resources and finances.”

“GARM therefore is making the difficult decision to discontinue its activities.”

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GARM members including CVS Health, Mars and Orsted are impacted by the action. In an open letter X CEO Linda Yaccarino referenced a judicial committee report accusing GARM of “colluding to suppress voices and views disfavoured by the leading marketers.”

The move by X, comes after brands including Disney, Apple IBM and pulled advertising from the site after Musk was embroiled in an antisemitism scandal. Musk told the advertisers to “go f*ck themselves” at the time.

Musk’s legal action over X has provoked outrage in the industry, Dude London executive creative director Curro Piqueras went as far as describing X as “Twitter’s evil twin brother”.

Brand safety is also under wider discussion, with a damning Adalytics report earlier this week outlining that ads for brands including Disney, Ikea, and Nestlé appeared next to pornographic and racist content.