From Opindia.com…
On Tuesday, Twitter owner Elon Musk called for an investigation into ‘advocacy’ groups demanding major corporate brands reconsider their decision to fund ads on the platform if Twitter pushes for changes once the Tesla CEO takes control of the platform.
According to a report by the CNN, a group of 25 left-wing advocacy groups have written a letter to the biggest brands, including Coca-Cola (CCEP), Disney (DIS) and Kraft (KHC), asking them to make sure advertising deals made with Twitter are contingent that it will keep in place policies to police “hateful conduct, transparency and enforce civic integrity” or risk losing advertising dollars.
The organisations that have written a letter include – Media Matters for America, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Accountable Tech, a technology advocacy group, the feminist group UltraViolet, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the National Hispanic Media Coalition and the Free Press digital rights group.
“As top advertisers on Twitter, your brand risks association with a platform amplifying hate, extremism, health misinformation, and conspiracy theorists,” the letter read, adding, “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.”
Interestingly, two such advocacy groups – Free Press and Media Matters for America have directly received funding from the Hungarian-American George Soros’s Open Society Foundation.
The report said big brands such aswere targeted in the letter.
“Your ad dollars can either fund Musk’s vanity project or hold him to account,” the letter read.
In response to a CNN report, Elon Musk tweeted, “Who funds these organisations that want to control your access to the information? Let’s investigate….” He also added later, ‘sunlight is the best disinfectant’, hinting that transparency and openness, not censoring, are always better.
