Friend, the recent anniversary of the violent Jan. 6 insurrection reminds us that social media is a primary source of fast-moving and unverified information, often with dangerous consequences.

People should be able to rely on the platforms they use to find accurate information about elections and other crucial matters. The failure to vet and remove dangerous and misleading content harms and alienates users.

Our new Big Tech Backslide report, which documents these failures, is a wake-up call for all of us — and we don’t have a lot of time to act before the upcoming presidential election. Your donation to Free Press Action today will fuel our efforts to demand that social-media companies fight the spread of disinformation and hate.

—The Free Press Action team

Friend,

Just days ago, we passed a grim milestone: the third anniversary of the horrific Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. To this day, we remain appalled by this violent attempt to undermine a democratic election — and we’re determined to do whatever we can to prevent this kind of attack from ever happening again.

Our latest report, Big Tech Backslide, looks in detail at the deluge of fake, hateful and violent content on social-media platforms that fueled lies about the 2020 election and led to the horrible events on Jan. 6.

Though they promised to do better, companies like Meta, Twitter and YouTube have actually ditched important safeguards — and do not have sufficient policies, practices, AI systems or human capital in place to combat lies ahead of, during and after election periods.

Big Tech Backslide makes one thing abundantly clear: Disinformation is about to go from bad to worse as these tech giants fail to provide adequate content moderation on their platforms.

Our democracy and our lives face great danger when Big Tech isn’t held accountable, and Free Press Action is gearing up to do something about it.

Our work to hold social-media companies accountable relies on the generosity of grassroots supporters like you. Will you make your very first donation to Free Press Action today?

Big Tech executives like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have made reckless decisions to maximize platform profits and minimize platform accountability. And with a consequential presidential election in November, these next few months are critical to stopping the spread of disinformation and hate before it’s too late.

Last June, YouTube reversed its ban on content promoting lies about the results of the 2020 election. Meta followed, allowing political advertisers to run the same kind of dangerous and misleading disinformation. And Twitter has reinstated previously banned accounts from thousands of white nationalists and other extremists, including Alex Jones — and ditched crucial policies that had banned disinformation about elections and COVID.

These companies have also laid off entire teams devoted to election integrity, content moderation and fact checking. Taken together with the reinstatement of Donald Trump’s accounts on Meta, Twitter and YouTube, these developments represent a dangerous backslide.

In turn, this has created a toxic online environment that is vulnerable to exploitation by anti-democracy forces, white supremacists and other extremists.

We can’t let tech companies continue to prioritize their profits over our safety, our democracy and our civil rights. Donate today to support our fight to stop the spread of online hate and disinformation in 2024.

With your support, Free Press Action will make the coming months count.

Thank you so much,

Candace and the rest of the Free Press Action Team
freepress.net

P.S. Social-media companies have failed us too many times before and we’re not going to let them get away with it. Donate today to keep the pressure on these companies to crack down on disinformation and hate to keep users safe.