X, led by Elon Musk, has ended a long legal dispute with the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) through a settlement. The fight over advertisers' organised pauses in ad spending has ended, but debate is expected to continue over balancing freedom of expression and brand safety.

On July 29, local time, IT outlet TechCrunch reported that X and the WFA said in a joint statement they had agreed to end the lawsuit involving the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) and reset their relationship.

The settlement effectively ends a lawsuit Musk filed, saying he would seek legal responsibility over advertisers' collective pause in advertising. X filed suit in 2024, alleging the WFA led an organised and illegal advertising boycott against the platform. At the time, the company said coordinated action by major advertisers was behind a sharp drop in ad revenue after Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in 2022.

Defendants included global companies such as Mars, CVS Health, Shell and LEGO. Advertisers, however, had denied X's claims, saying each company independently decides whether to place ads.

A court did not side with X. A U.S. federal court dismissed the case in March, saying X had not sufficiently proven harm under federal competition law. X appealed in April, but the settlement means the two sides have ended the dispute outside court.

At the centre of the conflict was GARM, a WFA affiliate. GARM is a consultative body formed by advertisers and ad agencies to set industry standards to prevent brand ads from appearing alongside harmful content such as hate speech or violent material. After Musk bought X and loosened content moderation policies, advertisers voiced concerns about potential damage to brand images, and X argued the guidelines encouraged reduced ad spending.

In the joint statement, the two sides said, "WFA and X have decided to put the GARM-related lawsuit behind us and reset the relationship between our organisations." The WFA also reaffirmed its support for freedom of expression, while saying it ended GARM on Aug. 9, 2024 and will not re-establish or operate GARM or any similar organisation in the future.

Instead, the WFA and X left room for common ground on brand safety itself. The joint statement said, "We fully agree that brands, platforms and consumers will all benefit from innovation in brand safety." The legal clash over ad placements has ended, but how to reconcile a platform's freedom of expression with advertisers' demands to protect brands remains an unresolved task.

The clash between Musk and advertisers is not the first. Musk has publicly confronted companies that stopped advertising after his takeover of X, making harsh remarks. Against that backdrop, the settlement can be read as the result of X shifting course toward at least resolving legal conflict, rather than further worsening relations with the advertising ecosystem.