Dear John,

One in five Americans get their news primarily from social media. For young people aged 18–24, it’s nearly half.

That’s a big problem because progressives have tended to fall behind on social media in recent years. That’s why the team at Inequality Media launched a major initiative to close the gap, and it’s working.

In fact, I’ve just gotten my hands on the latest numbers from our social media team, and they’re extremely encouraging. Check it out:

We’re now getting 2.4 times more engagements than Fox News on Facebook, despite their massive budget and 16.2 million more followers. We’re also beating Fox News on Instagram engagement, despite 5 million fewer followers.
Our posts get 4.5 times more shares than far-right commentator Ben Shapiro on Facebook, despite the fact that he has 5 million more followers.
We receive 9 times more engagement and 20 times as many shares as Donald Trump for President on Facebook, even though he has 1.85 million more followers.

As you can see, our team is doing a remarkable job of reaching the masses with effective videos and other social media content. But because we still trail the biggest right-wing outlets in total followers, we’re continuing to fight to beat back their lies and disinformation.

We know that what we’re doing is working. But we must go bigger, and we rely on donations from everyday folks like you. Will you make a donation to Inequality Media to help us get the truth out and go toe-to-toe online with the right wing?

Right-wing demagogues like Dan Bongino, Ben Shapiro, and Tucker Carlson routinely dominate the daily list of top Facebook link posts, and it comes as no surprise that those who primarily get their news from social media are on average less informed and less engaged.

No wonder Trump’s Big Lie about the 2020 election and COVID-19 misinformation are spreading so fast.

Let’s be clear: The rise of social media isn’t going anywhere. Young people are not going to switch back to reading print newspapers. And if we don’t learn to combat disinformation and control the narrative on social media, things will only get worse.

Every day, Inequality Media is testing, refining, and learning how best to get our messages out to the widest social media audience possible. In addition, we’re sharing what we learn with other progressive groups and other like-minded organizations so they can learn and grow as we do.

The future of politics is online. We must close the gap so we can beat back right-wing disinformation and make the bold change we need to solve the big problems facing our country.

Please, if you can, make a donation to help fuel our work at Inequality Media. Every dollar counts. No contribution is too small.

Thanks for standing with us,

Robert Reich

Inequality Media