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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.
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
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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.
Will you help us raise $25,000 by May 1?
Thanks for standing with us.
Robert Cruickshank,
Demand Progress
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," October 19, 2020
2. The Guardian, "Is Gmail hiding Bernie’s emails to you? How inbox filtering may impact democracy," February 26, 2020
3. Ibid.
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