Several “woke” groups, many of which are funded by radical billionaire George Soros, have launched a new effort to pressure Twitter’s top advertisers into forcing Elon Musk to censor users.
On Tuesday, 40 media propaganda and pressure groups wrote a letter to major companies that advertise on Twitter, demanding that they boycott the platform.
The groups are demanding that companies force Musk to enforce the platform’s old censorship practices by threatening to pull their advertising if the new owner and CEO refuses to comply.
“We, the undersigned organizations, call on you to notify Musk and publicly commit that you will cease all advertising on Twitter globally if he follows through on his plans to undermine brand safety and community standards including gutting content moderation,” the letter reads.
“This means that Musk must not roll back the basic moderation practices Twitter already has on the books now and must commit to actually enforcing those rules.”
The letter, which was sent to 20 major advertisers, was signed by Soros-funded Media Matters For America, Free Press, Public Citizen, and Accountable Tech – as well as activist groups like NAACP, National Center for Transgender Equality, and the National Hispanic Media Coalition.
It was addressed to the top 20 Twitter advertisers, including Disney, IBM, Amazon, HBO, and others.
Interpublic Group, an advertising giant, has told customers who use its IPG Media Brands agencies to pause paid advertising on Twitter for at least a week.
A person familiar with the story told CNBC that the company is recommending to its clients to pause advertising on the platform until its plans for trust and safety are made clear, in light of the new ownership.
The groups are warning that Twitter might become a “free-for-all hellscape.”
The email sent by MAGNA said that Twitter had not communicated with any of the marketing agencies, adding that “the current situation is unpredictable and chaotic, and bad actors and unsafe behaviors thrive in such an environment.”
Some of the agencies’ clients include Unilever, CVS Pharmacy, and Nintendo.
Last week, General Motors said that it had paused advertising on Twitter.
The automaker, a rival of Musk’s electric car company Telsa, says the ads are on hold until it understands “the direction of the platform under their new ownership.”
