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Dear John,

Twitter’s gone further down the path toward far-right white nationalism.

Since Musk took ownership of the platform and rolled back safeguards on
hate speech and content moderation, he’s literally granted amnesty to
white nationalists with no clear guidelines on how or when they could be
removed again. Under the new rules, even David Duke, a neo-Nazi, longtime
Klan leader, and Holocaust denier, could be back on the platform today.

And Twitter’s audience is starting to reflect its movement towards the
far-right. In the past few weeks, far-right extremists and
insurrectionists like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Senator Ted Cruz
have seen significant jumps in their follower counts.^1 Musk himself is
cozying up to known white nationalists on Twitter and publicly declared
his support for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a far-right political
figure who is all but certain to run for president in 2024.^2 

It’s alarming just how far-right Twitter has become in just a few weeks.
There’s no sign that Musk is slowing down. 

In recent days, Twitter has stopped enforcing its COVID misinformation
policy, which was put into place during the height of the COVID pandemic
in an attempt to curb misinformation and save lives.^3 Musk has also
threatened to retaliate against civil rights groups like Color Of Change,
who have pushed him to keep Twitter’s content moderation guardrails in
place to protect marginalized communities from threats, doxxing, and hate
speech.^4 

Even Apple seems to have had enough. According to Musk, they’ve threatened
Twitter’s standing on the App Store due to Musk’s rampant disregard for
the app store’s community guidelines.^5 

It’s clear: Twitter is now supporting and emboldening violent
insurrectionists, it’s encouraging hate speech against trans and gender
non-conforming people, and it’s doing nothing to protect Black people
against constant racist vitriol. Twitter should not receive the financial
support of major corporate advertisers like Disney and Coca Cola. No
company that supposedly cares about the most vulnerable members of our
society can justify enriching Musk any further. 

Musk has no interest in protecting Black people. He cares only for his own
wealth and status, so let’s keep hitting him where it hurts most: his
pockets.

The pressure that COC members are putting on advertisers is working. There
are reports that Twitter is failing to pay its vendors and some of its
workers on time.^6 Musk has thrown temper tantrums on calls with major
advertisers, admonishing them for pulling their advertising dollars.^7 The
platform, and Musk, are clearly hurting for cash, but we can’t stop now.
Let’s make him regret all the actions he’s taken to hurt our communities.

We invite you to join us in calling and emailing ALL our corporate targets
and urge them NOT to advertise on Twitter. Please share this email far and
wide. Let’s make our voices heard! 

[ [link removed] ]Send an Email to Coca cola

[ [link removed] ]SEND An email to Disney

[ [link removed] ]Send an email to Unilever

[ [link removed] ]SEND An email to Procter & Gamble 

[ [link removed] ]Send an email to HBO

 

Until justice is real,

— the Tech Accountability Team at COC

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References:

1. Gerrit De Vynck, Jeremy B. Merrill and Luis Melgar, "High-profile
Republicans gain followers in first weeks of Musk's reign," The Washington
Post, November 27, 2022,
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2. Sarah Elbeshbishi, “Elon Musk voices support for Trump rival Ron
DeSantis if Florida governor runs for president in 2024,” USA Today,
November 26, 2022,
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3. Donie O’Sullivan, “Twitter is no longer enforcing its Covid
misinformation policy,” CNN Business, November 29, 2022,
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4. Elon Musk, EM [@elonmusk]. (2022, November 28). The Twitter Files on
free speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter itself. The public
deserves to know what really happened … [Tweet].
Twitter. [ [link removed] ][link removed]

5. Elon Musk, EM [@elonmusk]. (2022, November 28). Yes. [Tweet].
Twitter. [ [link removed] ][link removed]

6. Chris Stokel-Walker, “Twitter is now having trouble paying some
employees on time,” Ars Technica, November 28, 2022,
[ [link removed] ][link removed]

7. Jyoti Mann, “Elon Musk personally called CEOs of companies that stopped
advertising on Twitter to complain, report says,” Business Insider,
November 27, 2022,
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