Can the FTC actually penalize advertisers for invoking their own rights to free expression and association by refusing to deal with a private company just because they happened to agree on a collective set of brand standards to avoid monetizing hate speech or offensive content online?
You're not alone if you're confused by the suggestion, since advertisers have basically always cautiously avoided associations that could harm their brands. After Elon Musk sued MMFA—then quickly expanded the fight by also suing advertisers and agencies—a running social media joke mocked X as suing to force people to buy its products and the billionaire for seeming to believe it should be illegal to deprive him of money.
People who complain that crypto is a "pyramid scheme" or whatever are correct, but they fail to realize that capitalism is a pyramid scheme at best. I mean the biggest stock last year was a fascist surveillance company... And stuff like this is exactly why crypto will continue to succeed under capitalism.
It's a casino economy. Our lives have already been sold for chips. The branding of the chips doesn't actually matter but improved chip technology does. Casinos aren't actually using the same chips from the 1800s but the state is.