Dear John,

We've just received some very troubling news.

YouTube has announced that they plan to lift Donald Trump's suspension, allowing him to once again spread the hatred and disinformation that led to the January 6 insurrection. According to reports, Facebook will likely let Trump back onto its platform as well.

We've seen the damage that Donald Trump, Fox News, and the rest of the right-wing disinformation machine can do. To defend our democracy, we must be better prepared to fight back against the lies that we know are coming.

So the team here at Inequality Media has made a big decision: we're launching a major effort to inoculate the public against Trump's lies by testing and deploying the most effective messages with key constituencies across the country while building the largest possible audience across social media.

This has the potential to be one of the most strategically effective initiatives we've ever taken on. But in order to reach the key groups we need, like younger people on Instagram and TikTok, we will need to substantially increase our budget for developing content and building our audience.

That's why I'm coming to you today. Will you make a donation and help make sure we have the resources to reach the millions of people being targeted by Trump and counter the right wing's most damaging lies and conspiracy theories?

The disinformation machine, extending from Trump to Fox News to OANN, presents a formidable and dangerous challenge--and one that will only grow in the run-up to the 2022 and 2024 election cycles. As Tristan Harris, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology and former Google Design ethicist, has said, "Fake news spreads six times faster than true news."

The good news is that we know that reaching and educating undecided folks first can have a powerful inoculation effect, because scientific testing and public-opinion research has proven it.

But one of the big challenges we face as a democracy is that so many people live in their own information bubbles, and getting through to them with messages that will resonate and stick is increasingly difficult.

That's why Inequality Media is launching this strategically crucial initiative, to run scientific A/B tests to find out which messages are most effective with suburban women, communities of color, young people, and rural communities. These are some of the important constituencies that will decide the future direction of our nation, and they are being heavily targeted by the right wing.

We've already had impressive success building our audience among persuadable conservatives, young people, and other critical blocs. But there's too much at stake, and the lies are only getting bigger and more dangerous.

This is one of the most strategically important initiatives we've ever taken on, and we need your help. Will you chip in to Inequality Media and help launch this vitally important strategy to build support for progressive change and inoculate key constituencies against Trump's lies?

Thank you for helping to stop right-wing disinformation,

Robert Reich
Inequality Media