NAACP Demands All Companies Pause Advertising On Twitter
Twitter has been in a tailspin since billionaire Elon Musk bought the social media platform. Over the weekend, he reinstated former President Donald Trump, who was suspended after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The NAACP is now calling on all companies to pause advertising on Twitter.
The nation’s oldest civil rights organization said in a statement, “It is immoral, dangerous, and highly destructive to our democracy for any advertiser to fund a platform that fuels hate speech, election denialism, and conspiracy theories. Since Elon Musk has taken over Twitter, racial slurs have spiked, and conspiracy theories have spread. When we met with Elon Musk, he made commitments that gave us cautious optimism, but until actions are taken to make Twitter a safe space, corporations cannot in good conscience put their money behind Twitter.”
The statement continued, “Twitter must earn its advertisers by creating a platform that safeguards our democracy and rids itself of any content or account that spews hate and disinformation. Any account promoting hate, election denialism and any other form of mis- or disinformation cannot be allowed to return to Twitter. As we did in 2020 for Facebook, the NAACP will meet with advertisers privately to discuss their ongoing relationship with Twitter. Unlike Elon Musk's past ventures, this one should not be rocket science.”
Last month, Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk purchased Twitter for over $44 billion. Since then, the social media platform has seen skyrocketing hate speech, its stock plunging, and advertisers pulling out. Twitter also laid off thousands of its staff, including closing an office in Ghana, which was Twitter’s only location in Africa.
The future of Twitter is in limbo. There are reports that the social media platform could experience a “major crash” soon.