Following Elon Musk’s decision to reinstate Donald Trump on the social media platform, a coalition of civil rights organizations is urging advertisers to stop using Twitter. They claim that the platform’s new owner broke a promise to consult social justice leaders and advocates regarding content moderation.
Following the riots at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, Twitter “permanently suspended” Trump’s account under its prior leadership. The decision was made at the time due to a “potential of additional encouragement of violence,” according to the company.
Soon after Musk sealed the deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion, the new owner of the social media website asked his followers in a poll earlier this month if the former president should be permitted to return to the site. More than 51% of voters supported letting Trump return to the website.
“The conversation is over. Trump will regain his position, “Following the outcomes, Musk tweeted.
Derrick Johnson, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), urged advertisers to halt their contracts with Twitter following Musk’s decision to reinstate Trump following his ban.
Johnson wrote: “Any advertiser still supporting Twitter should suspend all advertising right away.”
A coalition of more than 60 human rights organizations known as #StopToxicTwitter issued a joint statement on Sunday urging an advertising boycott of Twitter.
The network is unsafe for users or advertisers “until and until Musk can be trusted to enforce Twitter’s past community standards,” the statement read. For those who are still running ads on Twitter right now, be aware that you are directly aiding in the annihilation of Twitter by an unstable billionaire and its quick descent into absolute chaos.
Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, slammed Musk for inviting Trump back to the stage.
Greenblatt wrote in a series of tweets that Elon Musk’s decision to reinstate Donald Trump on Twitter, ostensibly following a quick vote, was evidence that he was not at all serious about protecting the platform from hate speech, abuse, and misinformation.
Musk retorted, “Hey, stop dissing me.
“As we’ve already stated, Trump utilized Twitter to advocate violence against the US government, spread bigotry, and make threats. Additionally, he has not demonstrated that, given the chance, he would act any differently “He went on.
Later, Greenblatt added: “Elon Musk has made some unpredictable and unsettling decisions over the past month, but this one is particularly risky and endangers American democracy. Is Twitter going away? is a question we need to ask.”
Trump had not yet published any fresh content on the social media platform as of Wednesday afternoon.
More than a third of the top 100 users of the network, according to statistics collected by The Washington Post, had not been promoted on Twitter in the previous two weeks.
One of them, Mars, justified its decision to halt Twitter marketing by citing “major brand safety and appropriateness incidents that damaged our brand,” the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
Musk had aimed to allay advertisers’ concerns about his acquisition of Twitter as the deal came to an end in late October.
In a tweet on October 28, Musk stated that Twitter would create a content moderation committee with a wide range of perspectives, and that “No major content judgments or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.”
On Tuesday, Musk responded to a user who termed that assertion “totally fake”.
As long as I complied with this requirement, a sizable coalition of political and social activist groups promised not to try to suffocate Twitter by starving us of advertising money, he said. They broke the agreement.
One of the executives that met with Musk earlier this month was Free Press Co-CEO Jessica J. González. Musk “never followed up” after inviting attendees to the meeting to join the proposed content monitoring panel, claims the advocacy and media reform organization.
González said in a statement that Musk “has broken every promise he made to civil-rights activists and marketers in less than three weeks.”
She said, “Musk’s reinstatement of Trump’s account entailed no transparent procedure, but depended on the outcomes of a weak Twitter poll.” “Without calling the new council he claimed would defend Twitter users, Musk made this reckless choice. This new council doesn’t exist as far as I know.”
