Democratic Dark Money Group Urges Advertisers to Push Musk Not to 'Toxify Our Information Ecosystem'
17:43 GMT 17.11.2022 (Updated: 05:55 GMT 18.11.2022)
© AP Photo / Gregory Bull
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A group connected to a Democratic dark money outfit has published a new open letter to Twitter’s top advertisers, urging them to use their leverage over the social media giant to ensure it continues to enforce its rules against harassment, hate speech, and disinformation.
The letter is by Accountable Tech, which is a member group of Onward Together, a 501(c)(4) group group former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton started after her 2016 loss to Donald Trump as a way to funnel funding from anonymous donors to liberal groups. A US newspaper described Onward Together and other 501(c)(4) groups as “often cited for a rise in dark money in politics because of their ability to protect donor anonymity.”
The letter is not addressed to any one company, but simply “to whom it may concern,” but later clarifies it is speaking to “Twitter’s top advertisers.”
“Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter will further toxify our information ecosystem and be a direct threat to public safety, especially among those already most vulnerable and marginalized,” the letter states.
“Twitter has outsized influence in shaping both public discourse and industrywide platform governance standards. While the company is hardly a posterchild for healthy social media, it has taken welcome steps in recent years to mitigate systemic risks, ratcheting up pressure on the likes of Facebook and YouTube to follow suit,” it argues. “Musk intends to steamroll those safeguards and provide a megaphone to extremists who traffic in disinformation, hate, and harassment. Under the guise of ‘free speech,’ his vision will silence and endanger marginalized communities, and tear at the fraying fabric of democracy.”
It then urges the companies to withhold their advertising payments from Twitter unless the firm commits to three “non-negotiable” principles:
1.
“Keep accounts including those of public figures and politicians that were removed for egregious violations of Twitter Rules-– such as harassment, violence, and hateful conduct - off the platform”2.
“Beyond algorithmic transparency, ensure algorithmic accountability, preserve people’s privacy, and commit to depolarizing the algorithm.”3.
“Continue Twitter’s commitment to transparency and researcher access.”“As top advertisers on Twitter, your brand risks association with a platform amplifying hate, extremism, health misinformation, and conspiracy theorists,” the letter adds. “Your ad dollars can either fund Musk’s vanity project or hold him to account. We call on you to demand Musk uphold these basic standards of community trust and safety, and to pull your advertising spending from Twitter if they are not.”
It is cosigned by 26 other groups, most of which are liberal activist or civil rights-related groups connected to various minority populations, most of which are US-focused.
A similar letter cosigned by many of the same groups was published on November 2 and directly addressed to the CEOs of 21 major corporations. Whether or not the companies made their decisions because of the civil society group pressure, many decided to either pull or pause their advertisements on Twitter after a slew of sweeping changes were announced by Musk, who bought Twitter on October 28. However, Musk faulted the activists as part of his posturing as the champion of the everyman against “the elites.”
However, it wasn’t just Clinton-connected activists, but also the United Nations, that has expressed concern over some of Musk’s proposed changes, which include ending permanent bans on figures like former US President Donald Trump and relaxing rules in the name of protecting free speech.
When Twitter’s Board agreed to sell Musk the company for $44 billion, it was in the hopes he would patch their leaky finances. Social media companies like Twitter depend heavily on ad revenue to stay profitable, alongside selling users’ data to advertising companies, so the firms have significant leverage. It’s not clear Musk’s plans to restore profitability will be successful, either, since programs like Twitter Blue, a paid subscription service with a number of perks, including seeing half the number of ads as regular Twitter users see, are projected to result in a net loss.
