Elon Musk requested an investigation into far-left organizations that have allegedly urged advertisers on Twitter to withdraw their advertising from the platform if Musk softens the platform’s content moderation rules.
“Some of the nation’s biggest companies, including Kraft (KHC), -Cola (CCEP), and Disney (DIS), are being urged to boycott Twitter if its soon-to-be owner, billionaire Elon Musk, reverses content moderation restrictions that limit election misinformation and hate speech,” according to CNN. “More than two dozen civil society organizations sent a letter to marketers this week ahead of the 2022 NewFronts digital advertising conference, urging them to obtain commitments from Twitter to keep its most essential rules, including hateful conduct and civic integrity, and threaten to defund the site if it does not comply.”
The letter was signed by groups like Media Matters for America, Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, GLAAD, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the Women’s March.
The letter said in part:
Your brand is at risk of being associated with a platform that promotes health misinformation, hate, extremism, and conspiracy theorists as top advertisers on Twitter. Under Musk’s leadership, Twitter is becoming a cesspool of falsehoods, with your company linked to it polluting our information ecosystem when trust in institutions and news media is already at an all-time low. “If you’re a company and you want to advertise on Twitter, you have the choice of funding Musk’s vanity project or holding him to account. We urge you to demand Musk keep these fundamental standards of public trust and safety, and if they are not met, stop advertising on Twitter.”
“Who finances these groups that want to govern your access to information? Let’s look into it…” Musk added. “Sunlight is the greatest disinfectant.”
The letter follows after Twitter’s board of directors gave its approval to a $44 billion buyout by Tesla CEO Elon Musk last week, valuing the deal at $54.20 per share.
“Attacks are coming at us fast and furious, largely from the left flank, which is not surprising. I should clarify, however, that the right would be dissatisfied as well. ” Last week on Twitter, Musk stated: “My objective is to maximize the area under the curve of global human happiness, which represents approximately 80% of people.”
“To merit public trust, Twitter must be politically neutral, which effectively implies pitting the far right and far left against each other equally,” Musk wrote in a separate tweet.
