Progressive PAC Takes On Elon Musk's Twitter
DFA looks to hit remaining advertising base over hate speech
Fresh off the November midterm elections, a prominent progressive political action committee, headquartered in South Burlington, Vt., is taking on billionaire Elon Musk's new — and increasingly problematic — ownership of Twitter.
Specifically, Democracy for America (DFA) is looking for the help of supporters in battling the soaring rise in hate speech on the social media platform since the industrialist purchased it for a reported $44 billion just weeks ago.
Twitter has seen an alarming number of problems since Musk's takeover, including steep layoffs, many people fleeing the site, and even Musk's own warning about potential bankruptcy.
However, it's the sharp rise in racial slurs and other hate speech suddenly appearing on Twitter during the Musk era that has DFA concerned.
One racial slur was used 26,228 times in tweets and retweets in Musk's first week, which was triple the 2022 average, according to a new report.
Another word used to attack transgender people was used 33,926 times in tweets and retweets, which was 53 percent higher than the 2022 average.
Hateful language to describe gay people, Jews and Hispanics also saw an increase since Musk took over the company.
“Immediately following Elon Musk’s take over of Twitter, Republican extremists felt emboldened to spread hate speech and racist rhetoric across the site. In just a few hours, the use of the n-word spiked close to 500 percent, and disinformation spread like wildfire,” DFA Director of Communications Kait Sweeney said in an email Monday to the organization's supporters. “Elon Musk himself is part of the problem. He shared a completely baseless and homophobic conspiracy about Paul Pelosi (Nancy Pelosi’s husband) after he was violently attacked. Elon Musk’s 100 million plus followers then immediately promoted this idea, helping to push it out even further.”
Sweeney is looking to target Twitter's remaining base of advertisers.
Already, some advertisers have quit Twitter including General Motors, Johnson & Johnson, and American Express.
“We can force Elon to bring back sensible content moderation that prevents dangerous conspiracy theories and racism from running rampant on Twitter by going after the one thing he cares about — his pocketbook,” Sweeney's email said. “The money advertisers spend on Twitter sets the standard of speech that is tolerated. Since Twitter’s top 20 advertisers account for 90% of the revenue we must work to ensure that enough of these corporations feel the pressure to act.
“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,” the email added.
Specifically, Sweeney asks recipients to electronically sign a petition linked in the email.
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