Team,

Let me be clear: As someone who has lost her father to COVID-19, I would not wish that fate on anyone — which is why I appreciated that Twitter announced it would delete tweets wishing for death or bodily harm upon Donald Trump when he was diagnosed with the virus. But what I do not appreciate is that Twitter has not taken that same approach to the constant stream of death threats that I — along with my sisters in service — receive on our platforms:

If you look at almost any post on my Twitter feed, you'll see death threats or at least calls for violence against me in the replies. This isn't anecdotal, team — a recent report from Institute for Strategic Dialogue showed that women candidates, especially BIPOC women, are more likely to face abuse on social media. And out of all the candidates reviewed for the study, I received the most abuse on Twitter.

I am proud of all of the identities that I hold and of the bold, progressive ideas that we fight for every day, but the online abuse fueled by those who hate everything that I am and everything we stand for is out of control. And if Twitter and other social media platforms are not going to take concrete actions to combat the hatred and vitriol on their platforms, then we need support to keep up our fast-paced digital communications, from emails to ads, to help drown out the noise and spread our message for progress.

Will you chip in your first donation of $5 to help us fight back and continue our organizing work for progress that online abusers are so hell-bent on stopping?

Thank you for your solidarity.

Ilhan Omar