Hey there --

At the start of this week, we sent a letter to Twitter’s top advertisers calling on them to stop spending money on the platform if Elon Musk rolls back safeguards against hate, harassment, and harmful disinformation.

On Tuesday, Elon Musk tweeted about our letter, urging his 91.1 million Twitter followers to investigate who funds our nine-person team. Frankly, it’s a little scary when the wealthiest person in the world comes after your team — not once, not twice, but with three separate tweets in the past 72 hours.

But thanks to his promotion, our letter is making waves online. Twitter’s advertisers are noticing our demands and responding.

On Thursday, the New York Times reported that “Many marketers were already lukewarm on the service. Now, some may move their money elsewhere if the content moderation policies are relaxed.”

We’ve made great strides this week, but we’re still a small nonprofit up against the wealthiest person in the world. We’re not backing down. We’re going to keep fighting to uphold the progress we’ve made and advance structural reforms to make the internet safer. 

We appreciate the outpouring of support we’ve seen this week from supporters like you. We are grateful to be in this fight with you.

Hope you have a restful weekend,

Nicole

Nicole Gill
Co-founder & Executive Director
Accountable Tech

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: Nicole, Accountable Tech <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, May 3, 2022 at 8:12 PM

Hey there --

Earlier today, we sent an open letter to Twitter’s top advertisers calling on them to commit to a few simple standards to continue advertising on the platform amidst Elon Musk’s acquisition.

And guess who just responded to our letter? Elon Musk himself.

Rather than respond to the content of our letter, which put forth just a few simple ways he could maintain Twitter's basic safeguards against hate, harassment, and harmful disinformation, Elon Musk is coming after our funding.

Frankly, most of our funders are right here — on this email list. It’s folks like you who chip in, become monthly donors, and support our work to hold Big Tech accountable.

A self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” Musk wants to rollback Twitter’s content moderation systems — opening the floodgates to extremism, hate, violence and all sorts of disinformation. It won’t just make Twitter a cesspool of harmful content – it could lower the standards of other Big Tech platforms and hurt people both on and offline.

That’s why we are calling on Twitter’s top advertisers: HBO, Kraft Foods, and Disney, to hold Twitter accountable, prioritize transparency, keep bad actors off the platform, and enforce strong disinformation policies

Elon Musk appears to be scared of us — and for good reason. We’re going to keep fighting to ensure that Twitter and other social media platforms continue to uphold and strengthen safeguards to mitigate hate, harassment, and harmful disinformation.

It’s not every day that the world’s wealthiest person comes after our nine-person nonprofit. We’re keeping our heads held up high. Our work continues. Chip in to support us as we take on Big Tech and fight the good fight.

In solidarity,

Nicole

Nicole Gill
Co-founder & Executive Director
Accountable Tech