| Friend — By now, you’ve probably heard that Meta President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg is considering lifting Donald Trump’s ban on Facebook and Instagram early next year.
And if Trump’s behavior on his own social platform is any indication, the move could cause severe real-world harm and significantly undermine our fight against dangerous disinformation. On Truth Social, he’s amplified:1 - Election disinformation, continuing to push the “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was “rigged” and “stolen”
- The QAnon conspiracy theory, linked to real acts of violence and considered a domestic terror threat by the FBI
- Threats against members of Congress and their families
- Lies about the FBI searching Mar-a-Lago, including attacks on the judge who issued the warrant
If Meta allows Trump back on its platforms, it would immediately open the door for more disinformation and extreme rhetoric targeting a much wider audience. We can’t let that happen.
Will you donate to our emergency fundraiser to help us fight any attempt to bring Trump back to Facebook and Instagram? A generous donor is matching all donations that come in the door through 10/31, so your gift will have double the impact on our organizing.
Free Press and our partners in the Change the Terms coalition have been fighting for years to get tech companies to stop the amplification of hateful, violent, misleading and false content across their platforms. We celebrated a major victory when Twitter removed Donald Trump from the platform in 2021, and Meta is finally discussing the concept of fighting misinformation across all languages.
But let’s be real: Platforms are still doing the bare minimum to keep users safe. With the midterm elections just around the corner, and another presidential election cycle starting next year, all social-media companies need to step up to protect our democracy and keep disinformation bullhorns like Donald Trump from spreading more dangerous conspiracies, hate and lies.
If we’ve learned anything in the past few years, it’s that these companies won’t act without immense public pressure. That’s where you come in: Make a matched donation to Free Press today to help us keep fighting back. In solidarity,
Candace and the rest of the Free Press team
freepress.net
P.S. As Mark Zuckerberg himself put it, Facebook banned Donald Trump for using the “platform to incite violent insurrection” following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Your dollar has double the impact on our work this month — give to our emergency fundraiser now so we can keep pushing Meta to keep its ban on Trump in place.
1. “Trump’s Activity on Truth Social Proves He Is Too Dangerous to Be on Meta’s Platforms,” Media Matters for America, Oct. 3, 2022  |
