#StopToxicTwitter Coalition Holds Emergency Press Call; Urges Advertisers to Pull Buys Following Musk’s Layoffs Citing Impact on Content Moderation and Brand Safety
Civil-rights and civil-society groups call on Twitter’s largest advertisers to pause advertising globally, say sweeping company layoffs will jeopardize brand safeguards and content-moderation standards
WASHINGTON — On Friday, Nov. 4 at 11:30 a.m. ET, civil-rights and civil-society leaders will hold an emergency press conference to announce an escalation of the #StopToxicTwitter campaign and to issue an urgent call to Twitter’s largest advertisers to pause their buys on the platform.
According to several news reports, advertisers are increasingly worried about brand safety on Twitter. Many, including General Motors, General Mills, Audi and Pfizer, have moved to pull their ads from the platform. Meanwhile, new research finds a 450-percent increase in the use of hate-speech terms on the day following Elon Musk's takeover at the social network.
The press call will feature experts from these organizations reacting to Elon Musk’s expected layoffs of more than half of Twitter’s workforce, and the impact that will have on content moderation and brand safety just four days before the midterm elections.
The call will also include leaders who met with Musk earlier this week and gained his verbal commitment to retain and enforce the election-integrity measures that were on Twitter's books before his takeover.
WHAT: #StopToxicTwitter Coalition Holds Press Call to address Musk and Twitter
WHEN: Friday, Nov. 4, 11:30 a.m. ET
SPEAKERS:
Angelo Carusone, President of Media Matters
Jessica González, co-CEO of Free Press
Nicole Gill, Executive Director of Accountable Tech
Rashad Robinson, President of Color Of Change
Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD
María Teresa Kumar, Founding President of Voto Latino
To attend, please RSVP to: Anya Silverman-Stoloff at anya@unbendablemedia.com
On Tuesday, more than 40 civil-rights and civil-society groups called on Twitter’s top-20 advertisers to inform Musk that they will suspend all advertising on the platform if he follows through on plans to undermine the social network’s community standards and content moderation.
The letter was sent to CEOs and top executives at Twitter’s top-20 advertisers: Amazon, Anheuser-Busch, Apple, Capital One Financial Corporation, CBS, CenturyLink, Coca-Cola Company, Comcast Corporation, Best Buy Co., Disney, Google, Home Box Office, IBM, Merck & Co., Meta Platforms, Mondelez International, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Verizon.
You can read that letter HERE: https://www.freepress.net/sites/default/files/2022-11/coalition_open_letter_to_twitter_top_20_advertisers_final.pdf
