Dear MoveOn member,

I'll cut to the chase: I'm pissed off—and not just because the Republican
National Convention is this week.

According to a shocking report, nearly half of all top-performing Facebook
posts that mention voting by mail are false or misleading.^1

These lies are being spread by right-wing Trump-supporting groups at a
time when millions of voters are planning to cast mail-in ballots, and
they are specifically targeting people likely to vote for Democrats.^2 And
Trump is doing nothing to stop them: As the Republican National Convention
kicked off yesterday, he spent an entire 20-minute speech repeating many
of these lies.

Let's call these lies what they are: voter suppression—and they have the
potential to hand Trump a second term.

That's why I'm urgently writing to you today to tell you about MoveOn's
efforts to combat these lies, save our elections, and make sure that every
vote is counted.

MoveOn has hired a team of digital detectives who are tracking right-wing
disinformation networks online, following the threads to their source, and
exposing their impact. Most importantly, MoveOn's digital sleuths are
pressuring social media platforms like Facebook to take down these posts.

And MoveOn's video team is creating ads that will provide voters the
information they need to properly and safely vote this year. MoveOn has
big plans to target these ads to young voters, voters of color, and
first-time voters in 10 critical battleground states that will decide
control of the White House and Senate.

But MoveOn needs your help to ensure these efforts are as big and bold as
possible all the way through Election Day. 



Will you chip in $3 a week to help MoveOn take down right-wing lies and to
help provide voters with the information that they need to safely and
securely cast their ballots? (MoveOn will bill your weekly donation to
your credit card once a month starting today and will contact you shortly
after the election to see if you want to modify or cancel your weekly
donation.)

[ [link removed] ]Count me in.

[ [link removed] ]No, I'm sorry, I can't chip in weekly.



John, investigators say that the right wing is spreading "false
claims, including conspiracy theories about stolen elections or outright
misrepresentations about voting by mail" on Facebook, reaching and
misinforming millions of voters.^3

So, what's Facebook doing to stop these lies and protect our democratic
process? Barely lifting a finger.

In fact, leaked internal materials show that Facebook purposely "relaxed
its rules so that conservative pages ... were not penalized for violations
of the company's misinformation policies."^4

Despicable.

Facebook even gave preferential treatment to Breitbart and Charlie Kirk,
the racist right-winger who spoke at the Republican National Convention
last night and spent his time spewing even more lies.^5

We simply MUST combat these lies. Because if we don't, they could spread
to millions of voters in critical battleground states, confuse voters,
depress turnout, and potentially even lead to Trump's re-election.



Will you chip in $3 a week to fuel MoveOn's campaign to take down
right-wing lies on social media in the lead up to Election Day? (MoveOn
will bill your weekly donation to your credit card once a month starting
today and will contact you shortly after the election to see if you want
to modify or cancel your weekly donation.)

[ [link removed] ]Count me in.

[ [link removed] ]No, I'm sorry, I can't chip in weekly.



It won't be enough to simply take down these lies intended to suppress the
vote. We have a lot of work to do to ensure every single voter has what
they need to vote safely and securely this November.

One poll found that 50% of young voters—a crucial Democratic
constituency—say they don't have the resources or knowledge they need to
vote by mail in November.^6

That's why MoveOn is creating videos on the voting process that will
provide key voters—including young voters, voters of color, and first-time
voters—in swing states the information they need to cast their ballots.

MoveOn is hard at work creating video ads that will show voters how to

* request their mail-in ballot,
* properly fill out and return their mail-in ballot,
* find their local polling station, if they choose to vote in person,
* and much, much more.

I'll be frank: Getting this critical information out to voters in
battleground states isn't cheap.



So, will you chip in $3 a week to fund these critical ads and ensure every
voter has the information they need to safely vote this November? (MoveOn
will bill your weekly donation to your credit card once a month starting
today and will contact you shortly after the election to see if you want
to modify or cancel your weekly donation.)

[ [link removed] ]Count me in.

[ [link removed] ]No, I'm sorry, I can't chip in weekly.



Thanks for all you do.

–Robert Reich

Sources:

1. "'Outright Lies': Voting Misinformation Flourishes on Facebook,"
ProPublica, July 16, 2020
[link removed]

2. "Disinformation campaign stokes fears about mail voting, using LeBron
James image and boosted by Trump-aligned group," The Washington Post,
August 20, 2020
[link removed]

3. "Sensitive to claims of bias, Facebook relaxed misinformation rules for
conservative pages," NBC News, August 7, 2020
[link removed]

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid.

6. "Poll: More Than Half Of Young People Lack Resources To Vote By Mail,"
NPR, July 30, 2020
[link removed]




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