Horrified at the thought that people who disagree with them might have an equal right to speak out, a number of high-profile liberals are trying to get advertisers to boycott Twitter, reports DailyMail.com.
Tesla founder and billionaire Elon Musk recently bought the platform for around $44 billion and is promising to end its extreme censorship and bias, which included banning President Donald Trump while he was still in office.
More than two dozen non-governmental organizations and activist groups, including the gay group GLAAD, Black Lives Matter, Friends of the Earth and others, signed a letter expressing concern about the development, since their elitist, largely totalitarian views cannot coexist with opposition, satire, close scrutiny, ridicule and especially truth. Musk has responded to the letter asking who is funding the group.
The answer to that, according to DailyMail.com, is a collection of “dark money” groups like George Soros’ Open Society Foundation; NGOs founded by former Clinton and Obama administration staffers; wealthy Democrat donors and their family foundations; labor unions; and even the governments of European countries.
“Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter will further toxify our information ecosystem and be a direct threat to public safety, especially among those already most vulnerable and marginalized.”
Decrying the dangers of letting people share ideas, they warned that any company that they catch advertising on Twitter “risks association with a platform amplifying hate, extremism, health misinformation, and conspiracy theorists.”
“Under Musk’s management, Twitter risks becoming a cesspool of misinformation, with your brand attached, polluting our information ecosystem in a time where trust in institutions and news media is already at an all-time low.
“Your ad dollars can either fund Musk’s vanity project or hold him to account. We call on you to demand Musk uphold these basic standards of community trust and safety, and to pull your advertising spending from Twitter if they are not.”
In response, Musk tweeted, “Who funds these organizations that want to control your access to information? Let’s investigate …”
He added: “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”
The letter had some 26 signatories, and the letterhead bore the logos of Accountable Tech, Media Matters for America, and Ultraviolet.
Accountable Tech is a Washington D.C.-based group led by Nicole Gill, a political campaigner and founder of the 2017 Tax March, and Jesse Lehrich, a former spokesman for Hillary Clinton and the nephew of David Axelrod, a former adviser to Barack Obama.
Media Matters for America was started in May 2004 by David Brock, a former conservative journalist.
