Dear John,

Elon Musk has fired half of Twitter’s 7,500 employees and is pushing out even more -- many in critical content moderation roles designed to stop disinformation, bullying and hate-speech.

This was after he fired Twitter’s executives “with cause” to avoid paying them out, and taunted Twitter and the law firm the company worked with in its lawsuit against him.

It’s also after Musk used the power of his new platform to spread a baseless and homophobic conspiracy theory about the attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

It’s been less than a month since Musk bought Twitter and this is just a preview of what he’s done so far.

Twitter must fix this, but there’s likely only one way to make them do it: lost advertising revenue.

Tell corporations, including HBO, Disney, Google, Pepsi and Amazon, along with IBM, Coke, Apple, Best Buy, and almost a dozen others, to suspend all Twitter advertising now.

As if Musk’s behavior wasn’t bad enough on its own, the Network Contagion Research Institute, a group that analyzes hundreds of millions of messages across social media, said use of the n-word alone on Twitter spiked nearly 500 percent in just the first 12 hours after Musk took over.^[1]

Users changed profile pictures to include the Nazi swastika, others posted videos montages glorifying Nazi Germany. Accounts promoted violence, election lies, and disinformation. Others called for the bullying and harrassment of transgender people.

Twitter users associated with the Russian and Chinese governments started calling for Twitter to remove labels that identify them as "state-affiliated" media sources, a tactic used since the 2016 election to defend against foreign interference and misinformation.

There is good news. Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has already prompted a slowdown of ad spending.

General Motors announced they’re pausing ads “to understand the direction of the platform under new ownership.”^[2] And only a couple of days later, ad giant, Interpublic Group, advised its clients, including Johnson & Johnson, American Express and a dozen others to ‘pause’ Twitter advertising, too.

This is a good start, but it’s nowhere near enough.

Twitter’s top 20 advertisers account for 90% of revenue and include some of the world’s biggest corporations.^[3] They’re spending millions supporting the platform and thereby paying to propagate hate speech, lies, and misinformation to users worldwide.

Join me in calling on HBO, Disney, Google, Amazon and others to take action and force change by suspending all advertising on Twitter now.

Never underestimate the power of public pressure.

Corporations who sell products to the American people care what we think more than we often realize, because they know they rely on the public to buy their products. They know that brand and reputation matter. And they don’t want to be associated with Twitter hate, lies, bigotry, and outright chaos.

Thank you for taking action today.

Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action

^{[1] Network Contagion Research Institute Analysis
[2] GM pauses ads on Twitter after Elon Musk’s acquisition
[3] Ad Giant Interpublic Group Advises Clients to ‘Pause’ Twitter Ad Spending for a Week}