Dear Friend,

It was April 2020. The coronavirus pandemic was in full swing, and some of
our biggest issues—from the continuity of Congress to the power of Big
Tech—were in the public eye.

And then our Gmail traffic suddenly dropped off. Fewer people were opening
our emails than before. Changes in Gmail's inbox filters have been sending
emails people signed up for to spam and make it harder to take on
corporate power.^1

Big Tech corporations like Google are using their control over the
internet to undermine our ability to tell you about important issues and
ways you can take urgent action. The ongoing attack on progressive
organizations has resulted in a serious drop in donations—donations we
depend on to mobilize the grassroots.

[ [link removed] ]Will you donate to Demand Progress right now and help us fight back
against Big Tech’s undemocratic and unaccountable power?

It wasn’t just Demand Progress. Last year, data analysts at the Markup
discovered that only 2% of email from Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders
were reaching users’ inboxes at the height of the presidential primary,
even though users had asked to receive their email updates. Emails were
instead going to promotions and even spam folders.^2

If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your
donation will go through immediately:

[ [link removed] ]Donate $20
[ [link removed] ]Donate $40
[ [link removed] ]Donate $75
[ [link removed] ]Or, donate another amount

Since Google and Facebook began these troubling practices, organizations
like Demand Progress have had a harder time getting emails to people who
have asked to hear from us.^3 Emails about the open internet, the
filibuster, and corporate greed, and more are often being kept out of your
inbox by Google, preventing more people from taking action.

Imagine the impact on us as an organization taking on the establishment
and their corporate money, or mobilizing to challenge a government that
oppresses us. The internet is supposed to empower us and make it easy for
us to organize, raise money, and make change.

But Big Tech is making that increasingly difficult, and donations are down
30% from this time last year.

One of our main campaigns is taking on the power of these huge tech
companies. It’s become clear to everyone that Google and Facebook have too
much control over what people see on the internet, and they are abusing
that power in order to make a profit. Amazon abuses its dominant market
position to crush small businesses and workers. We need to fight back, and
these giants are making our work harder.

We’ve just launched a brand new website, and we’re working to make
ourselves heard on alternate social media channels. We’ve also launched a
campaign asking President Biden and Congress to take on the power of
Google and the other Big Tech companies. We can rise above Big Tech and
keep demanding progress, but only with the support of our donors.

[ [link removed] ]Will you help us raise $25,000 by May 1?

Thanks for standing with us.

Robert Cruickshank,
Demand Progress

[ [link removed] ]DONATE

Sources:

1. Business Insider, "Mark Zuckerberg reportedly signed off on a Facebook
algorithm change that throttled traffic to progressive news sites — and
one site says that quiet change cost it $400,000 to $600,000 a year,"
[ [link removed] ]October 19, 2020
2. The Guardian, "Is Gmail hiding Bernie’s emails to you? How inbox
filtering may impact democracy," [ [link removed] ]February 26, 2020
3. Ibid.
----------

PAID FOR BY DEMAND PROGRESS (<a href="[link removed]">DemandProgress.org</a>) and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. Contributions are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. Join our online community on <b><a href="[link removed]">Facebook</a></b> or <b><a href="[link removed]">Twitter</a>.</b>

You can unsubscribe from this list at any time: [link removed]