Major corporations that have spent millions of dollars on Twitter ads have been M.I.A. in the days following Elon Musk’s takeover of the platform. GM remains the only company to publicly announce plans to pull advertising while others have stayed silent even amid troubling reports that Twitter posts spreading election misinformation and racist garbage have already spiked. Among “the 20 Companies that spent the most on Twitter Advertising since January 1” are Amazon, IBM, PepsiCo, Best Buy, Apple, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Merck, Disney, Comcast, Meta, Google, and Verizon – all corporations profiled in Accountable.US’ ‘American Democracy Scorecard’ project that found most Fortune 100 companies are failing do their part to protect democracy. 

 

Many of Twitter’s top corporate advertisers have sold a bill of goods to their customers, shareholders and employees that they support democracy when in reality they funnel money to interests working to undo it. They now face a choice between doubling down on their hypocrisy, or finally standing up for democracy. With the platform poised to usher in an ugly new era of election misinformation, including reinstating propagandist-in-chief Donald Trump, corporations can make their voice heard on whether one of the biggest public squares in the world should be surrendered to anti-democratic forces.” 

Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US

Last week, Accountable.US challenged all corporations that claim to support democracy to pledge to permanently pull all advertising from Twitter should the company reinstate Donald Trump’s account. Trump was suspended following the violent January 6th insurrection after the twice-impeached, documented-serial-liar doubled down on what caused it: spreading toxic lies about the 2020 election results. Twitter has been acquired by Elon Musk who “has said the decision to permanently ban Mr. Trump was wrong.”  Reportedly, a number of “blue chip” brands have already expressed concern about Trump’s return, while GM has already suspended its advertising on the platform. The sooner companies make their positions known, the better.

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