Hi Friend,

It’s a hot mess at Twitter. Since Elon Musk took over the company last week:

• Hate speech jumped almost 500% in the first 12 hours.¹
• Top executives who worked to create content-moderation systems were fired.²
• Musk announced he would form a content-moderation council to possibly reinstate people who have had their accounts suspended or removed.³
• Musk spread misinformation about the vicious attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband — and then lied about having done so.⁴
• The board of directors were fired.⁵

Let’s be clear: Musk is a symptom of a much bigger problem. Last week we exposed how badly social-media platforms are doing at stopping the spread of hate and disinformation with our latest report, Empty Promises.⁶

With the midterm elections happening in 8 days, it’s critical that we continue our work to stop the spread of election disinformation on social-media platforms. But we need to meet our $10,000 end-of-month goal by the end of the day — will you make your first gift to Free Press Action to help us close the fundraising gap?

Thank you so much — and more soon.

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

1. “Elon Musk Twitter Takeover Leads to N-Word and Hate Speech Increase, LeBron James Calls for Action,” Forbes, Oct. 31, 2022

2. “Musk Takes Over Twitter, Fires Content-Moderation Chief and Now Policing Hate Speech Is His Job,” Fortune, Oct. 29, 2022

3. “Elon Musk Declares Twitter Moderation Council — as Some Push the Platform’s Limits,” The Guardian, Oct. 28, 2022

4. “Elon Musk Deleted a Tweet About Paul Pelosi. Here’s Why That Matters,” The Washington Post, Oct. 30, 2022

5. “Musk Floats Paid Twitter Verification, Fires Board,” ABC News, Oct. 31, 2022

6. “Empty Promises: Inside Big Tech's Weak Effort to Fight Hate and Lies in 2022,” Free Press, Oct. 27, 2022