Press Releases
Watchdog: With Trump’s Twitter Reinstatement, Will Self-Proclaimed Pro-Democracy Corporations Pull Ads?
Washington D.C. – Following the news that Elon Musk is reinstating former president Donald Trump on Twitter, Accountable.US — the watchdog group behind the American Democracy Scorecard project that found most Fortune 100 companies are failing to do their part to preserve democracy — challenged all corporations that claim to support democracy to prove it by permanently pulling all advertising on the platform. Trump was suspended following the violent January 6th insurrection after the twice-impeached former president and documented-serial-liar doubled down on what caused it: spreading toxic lies about the 2020 election results. Reportedly, a number of “blue chip” companies have already expressed concern about Trump’s return. But only a handful of companies have pulled ads even amid troubling reports that Twitter posts spreading election misinformation and racist garbage have spiked significantly.
No corporation can truly claim to support democracy while sponsoring a company that is platforming a super spreader of lies that shatter faith and trust in our democratic institutions. This is someone Congress concluded did everything in his power to instigate the deadly coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol that will forever be a scar on our nation’s history. Musk’s decision today will no doubt usher in an ugly new era of disinformation and uncertainty. It is imperative that corporations make clear they will play no part in allowing one of the biggest public squares in the world to be surrendered to anti-democratic forces."
Jeremy Funk, spokesman for Accountable.US
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.