For Immediate Release
November 20, 2022
Contact: press@accountabletech.org
Civil society, human rights, and tech accountability groups leading the #StopToxicTwitter coalition issued the following statement condemning Elon Musk’s unilateral decision to replatform Donald Trump
“In his three weeks as Twitter CEO, Elon Musk has orchestrated a mass exodus of safety experts and turned the platform into a hellscape of misinformation, hate, and extremism. Now he has decided to hastily and unilaterally replatform Donald Trump — the man who incited a deadly insurrection against the U.S. government.
“Unless and until Musk can be trusted to enforce Twitter’s prior community standards, the platform is not safe for users or advertisers. For those still advertising on Twitter right now: know that you are contributing directly to an erratic billionaire’s decimation of Twitter and its rapid devolution into utter chaos.”
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#StopToxicTwitter is a coalition of 60+ civil rights and civil society groups, led by Accountable Tech, Free Press, and Media Matters for America, calling on Twitter advertisers to demand a safer Twitter for their brands and for users.
- On November 2, civil rights leaders from #StopToxicTwitter met with Elon Musk to express concerns about his plans for the platform. After that meeting, Musk tweeted out a series of commitments, tagging allies who were in the meeting.
- On November 4, Musk broke his word by summarily firing 50 percent of Twitter’s staff just four days before the election, threatening the platform’s ability to uphold basic brand and content moderation safeguards. #StopToxicTwitter demands that all advertisers pause their Twitter ad spending.
- On November 16, Musk emailed remaining employees to demand that they commit to an “extremely hardcore” culture or leave. 1200 employees choose to resign — leaving critical teams unstaffed and threatening core functions of the platform.
- On November 19, Musk unilaterally chose to reinstate Donald Trump, backtracking on a prior commitment to delay reinstatement decisions until review by a diverse content moderation panel.
