On Friday, a large number of Twitter employees received news that they’ve been fired – making it impossible for the company to uphold critical brand safeguards and content moderation standards. 

At the same time, the #StopToxicTwitter coalition announced that the Anti-Defamation League, Stop Hate for Profit, Voto Latino and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Ressa had joined the effort, swelling the coalition’s ranks to more than 60 civil rights and civil society groups. The full list can be found on the coalition website: https://www.stoptoxictwitter.com/

“We are witnessing the real time destruction of one of the world’s most powerful communication systems. Elon Musk is an erratic billionaire who is dangerously unqualified to run this platform – that’s why Accountable Tech first called on advertisers to hold him to account in May, and it’s why we lead the charge to stop this deal,” said Nicole Gill, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Accountable Tech. “Unless and until Musk can robustly enforce Twitter’s existing community standards, the platform is not safe for users or advertisers. Elon’s ‘hellscape’ is already here.”

”Musk’s layoffs betray the promise he made to Free Press, Color Of Change, the NAACP and ADL earlier this week; retaining and enforcing election-integrity measures requires an investment in the human expert staff, fact-checkers, and moderators, who are being shown the door today,” said Jessica J. González, co-CEO of Free Press. “More than 60 organizations have joined the call to #StopToxicTwitter, pressuring companies globally to cease advertising on the platform. We’re escalating our campaign today in response to Musk’s failure to uphold his commitment to take the measures that would prevent Twitter from becoming a superspreader of racism and disenfranchisement.”

“Elon Musk has demonstrated that it’s not possible for him to keep the brand safeguards that have existed on Twitter in place. There’s no more time for trust but verify, it’s time for escalation,” said Angelo Carusone, President and CEO of Media Matters for America. “Musk must earn back advertisers’ trust and their business. Since Musk has so far proven unwilling to do so, urgent action is needed to protect people from real world harm and for advertisers to protect their brand integrity. If they don’t leave now, advertising on Twitter will be akin to advertising on Parler before the January 6 insurrection.” 

Earlier this week, the coalition publicly urged Twitter’s top-20 advertisers to inform Musk that they will suspend all advertising on the platform if he follows through on plans to undermine the social network’s community standards and content moderation. Musk is on notice, tweeting Friday morning, “Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers.”

The #StopToxicTwitter campaign believes that unless and until Musk can invest in and prioritize teams that can robustly enforce Twitter’s existing community standards, the platform is not safe for users or advertisers.

“Elon Musk’s plans for Twitter will make it an even more hate-filled cesspool, leading to irreparable real-world harm. Musk’s plans will leave the platform more vulnerable to security threats, rampant disinformation, and extremism just ahead of the midterm elections. Elon Musk has a thirst for chaos and utter disregard for anyone other than himself and should not own Twitter.

In the last few weeks Musk has waded into foreign diplomacy – including parroting Kremlin talking points about their invasion into Ukraine. He is accepting financing from Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud and the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar – two countries run by repressive regimes. Elon Musk owning one of the world’s most powerful communication platforms is dangerous for us all. As Musk runs Twitter to the ground, let this serve as a warning to other platforms that they will be held accountable for ignoring public safety and dismantling the guardrails designed to protect our information ecosystem.

Background on the “Stop the Deal” coalition:

In June 2022, a diverse coalition of nonprofit advocacy organizations launched Stop The Deal – a multifaceted campaign designed to prevent Elon Musk’s hostile takeover of Twitter, and stave off the myriad harms to our information ecosystem that would inevitably stem from Musk running Twitter.

Founding members of the #StopTheDeal coalition:

• Accountable Tech
• Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH)
• Fair Vote UK
• Friends of the Earth
• GLAAD
• Global Project Against Hate and Extremism
• Media Matters for America
• MediaJustice
• MoveOn
• Public Citizen
• SumOfUs
• The Sparrow Project
• UltraViolet

The launch comes as Musk exhibits increasingly erratic and potentially unlawful behavior in his attempt to purchase the social media giant – a deal that could have swift and devastating impacts on our information ecosystem if consummated, threatening the basic safeguards Twitter has established to mitigate the real-world harms it can drive.

“Elon Musk is a wolf in expensive sheep’s clothing whose Twitter takeover is motivated by ego and grievance,” said Nicole Gill, Executive Director of Accountable Tech. “Musk doesn’t care about Twitter’s users or employees; he doesn’t care about shareholders or advertisers; he doesn’t care about following the law or advancing the public good. Elon Musk only cares about Elon Musk. If we don’t stop this deal, he’ll hand a megaphone to demagogues and extremists, who will cheer him as they incite more hate, harm, and harassment.”

“Elon Musk’s free speech fundamentalism forces women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and other marginalized groups to pay the price for the ‘free’ speech of misogynists, white supremacists, bigots, and so on,” said Imran Ahmed, Chief Executive for the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). “A platform that fosters a ‘safe space’ for serial abusers is a dangerous environment for everyone else.”

“Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter will not lead to more ‘free speech’ on the platform. It will simply lead to more extreme voices exploiting the platform to stoke hate, violence and harassment. Social media platforms that are nothing more than toxic cesspools of disinformation are harmful to our society and our politics. Twitter should reject Musk and this bad deal,” said Rahna Epting, Executive Director of MoveOn.

“A billionaire entrepreneur whose head is in the clouds and who thinks free speech means free reach will now control one of the most influential tech platforms in the world – what could possibly go wrong?” asked SumOfUs Campaign Director, Vicky Wyatt. “It’s time lawmakers pass tough new regulations that stop these Big Tech oligarchs from destroying our democracies and creating serious harm,” she continued.

“Elon Musk is one of the wealthiest, most powerful people on the planet. He does not believe that any content posted on Twitter, regardless of being factually inaccurate, violent, racist, or inflammatory, should be prohibited on the platform. This ideology sets a dangerous precedent for the future of social media platforms,” said Bridget Todd, Communications Director for UltraViolet. “Social media companies have allowed hate, violence, misogyny, and racism to go rampant for far too long. With more and more threats of violence online manifesting offline, platforms are finally listening to our demands for accountability in creating a safer space online for all people, but especially Black and Brown women and LGBTQ+ folks. We’re proud to be leading this fight with our partners to stop the deal and prevent Elon Musk’s dangerous takeover of Twitter before its too late.”

Given the monumental stakes and fast-changing nature of this situation, the Stop The Deal campaign will pursue multiple avenues of action, and will continue to adapt in real-time to seize opportunities to thwart Elon Musk’s acquisition. While not exhaustive, those avenues will include:

• Legal and regulatory action. Musk’s history of market manipulation and ongoing attempts to drive down Twitter’s share price, failure to properly fulfill various disclosure requirements, disingenuous claims in both public comments about the deal and official filings, and a raft of other seeming improprieties merit serious investigation. The campaign will seek to ensure that pertinent agencies and regulators utilize the full scope of their authority in reviewing this deal, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – which previously sought an officer-and-director bar against Musk for similar misconduct at Tesla – along with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
  
• Mobilizing shareholders. Elon Musk’s hostile takeover and his ongoing erratic behavior has left Twitter and Tesla shareholders alike extremely vulnerable. Tesla has lost roughly a third of its value since Elon revealed he had become Twitter’s largest shareholder, with fears swirling about Musk’s financial exposure and fitness to serve responsibly as CEO. Meanwhile, Musk effectively backed Twitter into a corner. Since his $44 billion deal was announced, he has falsely claimed it was “on hold” due to new concerns about bots, and openly mused about renegotiating the deal at a significantly lower price. The Stop The Deal campaign will engage in education and mobilization efforts to leverage concerned shareholders in this fight.
  
• Financial pressure. The campaign will attempt to make the deal financially nonviable by targeting major Twitter advertisers whose revenue is critical for the company’s bottom line. This builds on advocates’ recent letter calling on Twitter’s top advertisers to pull their advertising dollars if Musk fails to uphold basic platform safeguards, which would create massive brand safety risks for advertisers, in addition to driving sweeping societal harms.
  

Founding members of the #StopTheDeal coalition:

• Accountable Tech
• Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH)
• Fair Vote UK
• Friends of the Earth
• GLAAD
• Global Project Against Hate and Extremism
• Media Matters for America
• MediaJustice
• MoveOn
• Public Citizen
• SumOfUs
• The Sparrow Project
• UltraViolet
  

The delegates have been visiting history museums and pivotal Civil Rights Movement sites on their journey to Montgomery, studying the 400 years of Southern racial violence and terror against Black people that provide a backdrop for James’ 1898 lynching; the white supremacist rallies, the attacks against anti-racist protestors, Heather Heyer’s death in Charlottesville in 2017, and the uncountable similar tragedies between.

“Charlottesville is mobilizing to make change by literally getting on the bus to learn how our own history fits with Southern and US histories of anti-Black terror and Black resistance,” said Don Gathers, Chair of the 2016 Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials, and Public Spaces.

“This trip is part of an effort to educate students, teachers, and all community members about the legacy of anti-Black racial terror and Black resistance in Charlottesville specifically and across the South more broadly,” explained Professor Jalane Schmidt of the University of Virginia.

“Nelson Johnson reminded our delegation in Greensboro, ‘We must speak to the soul of the other…. Seek truth, seek justice, and seek not to become the thing which we oppose.’ It is time to tell the truth in America. It is the only way we can all live,” declared Rev. Brenda Brown-Grooms of New Beginnings Christian Community.

At the one-year anniversary of the summer 2017 Alt-Right violence, this trip is one of many ways in which the Charlottesville community is mobilizing to face the town’s difficult history of white supremacy.  The Pilgrimage commenced on July 8 — the one-year anniversary of a Ku Klux Klan rally in Charlottesville — and will arrive in Montgomery on July 12, the 120th anniversary of John Henry James’ 1898 lynching. Trip participants will report back to the broader Charlottesville community before the one-year anniversary of the deadly August 12, 2017 “Unite the Right” Rally.

“Charlottesville —and the nation— have to understand how the violent white supremacist rallies last summer fit into a legacy of racial terror,” said Dr. Andrea Douglas, Executive Director of the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, and organizer of the trip. “This is our challenge: Can we create a process that uncovers and disseminates racial truth?”

Note to Editors

The 100-Member Delegation Includes: Mayor Nikuyah Walker (Charlottesville’s recently-elected, first-ever African-American woman mayor); Susan Bro (mother of slain anti-racist activist Heather Heyer); members of the clergy; University of Virginia students, faculty and staff; local public high school students and teachers; former members of the city’s Blue Ribbon Commission which held hearings in 2016 about Charlottesville’s Confederate monuments; representatives of community organizations, including 2017 counter-protesters; and other residents.

Images from the Pilgrimage: A selection of photos will be made available after the event by Eze Amos Photography. Reporters are also encouraged to peruse images uploaded with the tag #cvillepilgrimage on social media.

Pilgrimage Itinerary:
Charlottesville, VA – July 7 (departure)
Appomattox, VA – July 8
Danville, VA – July 8
Greensboro, NC – July 9
Charlotte, NC – July 9
Atlanta, GA – July 10
Birmingham, AL – July 11 (9am 16th St. Baptist Church, 10am Birmingham Civil Rights Institute)
Montgomery, AL – July 12 (9:00 Southern Poverty Law Center Museum, 2:00 Equal Justice Institute)
Charlottesville, VA – July 13 (return)

However, a recent court filing by the Department of Justice on behalf of the FBI in an ongoing FOIA lawsuit plainly indicates the FBI has an active investigation pertaining to Donald Trump’s actions related to actual or potential election-related hacking and espionage by Russia.

The lawsuit is filed by Ryan Shapiro, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) PhD candidate/Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University research affiliate, and Jason Leopold, Senior Investigative Journalist at BuzzFeed News.

On August 18, 2016, Shapiro and Leopold submitted a FOIA request to the FBI seeking “disclosure of any and all records, including investigative records, mentioning or referring to Donald J. Trump’s statement on 27 July, 2016 [regarding Secretary Hillary Clinton’s State Department emails], ‘Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,’ and ‘I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.’”

When the FBI did not respond in a timely manner to the FOIA request, Shapiro and Leopold sued. During the lawsuit, the FBI initially asserted that it could neither confirm nor deny the existence of documents responsive to this FOIA request.

However, the FBI subsequently withdrew this position and agreed to search for the requested documents. Again, the documents requested by Shapiro and Leopold are records, including investigative records, mentioning or referring to a public statement made personally by Donald J. Trump, not his advisors, surrogates, or campaign staff.

In a court filing in this case on April 6, 2017, a Justice Department attorney representing the FBI informed the Court that there is an “active, ongoing investigation” pertaining to this matter and claimed that disclosing the “records that are responsive to the Russia Request” could reasonably be expected to interfere with “enforcement proceedings.” (As noted elsewhere in the DOJ/FBI’s new filing, the term “Russia Request” refers explicitly to Shapiro and Leopold’s FOIA request quoted above.) The DOJ/FBI’s new court filing acknowledges the existence of records responsive to Shapiro and Leopold’s “Russia Request”, and claimed that all, or virtually all, of these documents cannot be released because of the potential to interfere with active law enforcement proceedings.

On April 7, 2017, the Court set a deadline of July 25, 2017 for the FBI to file a motion explaining the basis for its claim that release of documents responsive to “the Russia Request” would interfere with an ongoing law enforcement operation.

The lawsuit is Case 1:16-cv-01827-KBJ. It is being heard in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Documents

1. Read the Joint Status Report in 1:16-cv-01827-KBJ HERE 
2. Read Comey’s termination letter from Trump, Sessions & Rosenstein HERE

About Operation 45

Ryan Shapiro, referred to by Politico as “a FOIA guru at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology”, is an historian of national security, the policing of dissent, and governmental transparency. Shapiro’s pathbreaking FOIA work has already led the FBI to declare his MIT dissertation research a threat to national security. Shapiro is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society (HASTS) at MIT, as well as a Research Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.

Shapiro is also the co-founder and president of the new transparency organization Operation 45. The Nation has described Operation 45 as “a ray of hope in these dark political times.”

Jason Leopold is an award-winning Senior Investigative Reporter at Buzzfeed News, specializing in counterterrorism and human rights. Leopold has been called a “FOIA Terrorist” by federal employees for his aggressive use of the Freedom of Information Act, which includes successfully suing the FBI to force changes to Bureau FOIA practices.

Shapiro and Leopold are represented by Washington, DC-based FOIA specialist attorney, Jeffrey Light.

You can follow Ryan Shapiro on twitter at @_rshapiro, and Jason Leopold on twitter at @JasonLeopold.

You can support Operation 45’s efforts HERE

Jason Leopold is an award-winning Senior Investigative Reporter at Vice News, specializing in counterterrorism and human rights. Leopold has been called a “FOIA Terrorist” by federal employees for his aggressive use of the Freedom of Information Act, which includes successfully suing the FBI to force changes to Bureau FOIA practices.

Ryan Shapiro, referred to by Politico as “a FOIA guru at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology”, is an historian of national security, the policing of dissent, and governmental transparency. Shapiro’s pathbreaking FOIA work has already led the FBI to declare his MIT dissertation research a threat to national security. Shapiro is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society (HASTS) at MIT, as well as a Research Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.

Leopold and Shapiro are represented by Washington, DC-based FOIA specialist attorney Jeffrey Light.

Six key elements of Shapiro and Leopold’s FOIA request & lawsuit:

1.) Leopold and Shapiro submitted a FOIA request to the FBI for records on a wide range of records pertaining to FBI operations involving the 2016 U.S. presidential election. This includes but is not limited to all records on:

* The FBI’s investigations of Hillary Clinton’s email & private server

* The FBI’s investigations of the Clinton Foundation

* FBI Director Comey’s communications with Congress regarding the FBI’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email & private server

* Allegations of FBI violations of the Hatch Act in the course of the 2016 U.S. presidential election

* Internal discontent at the FBI regarding the FBI’s Clinton investigations

* All leaks of information by the FBI to the press and political operatives about FBI investigations of Hillary Clinton

* All FBI communications with Breitbart News, Steve Bannon, Corey R. Lewandowski, Fox News, Bret Baier, Sean Hannity; & Rudy Giuliani

* Richard Spencer, the National Policy Institute, & the “alt-right”

2.) Even as J. Edgar Hoover and his FBI coordinated much of the red-baiting of the McCarthy era, the Bureau staunchly maintained it was a purely apolitical entity. Current FBI Director James Comey also insists, notwithstanding the FBI’s previous transgressions, today’s Bureau truly is outside and above politics. However, numerous leading political and news media figures from across the political spectrum explicitly assert the FBI repeatedly and with significant impact affected the outcome of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. For example, both Senate Minority leader Harry Reid and former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski openly credit Director Comey and his FBI for Donald Trump’s electoral victory over Hillary Clinton. Even prior to the election, in late October, a piece in Politico opined that a string of recent FBI actions “give the lie to Comey’s repeated insistence that the FBI is above politics, exposing that notion as both irrelevant—[…] and absurd[.]”

Shapiro and Leopold’s lawsuit seeks public disclosure of specified government records to make sense of the pivotal role of the FBI, as well as of other agencies, in perhaps the most controversial presidential election in modern U.S. history.

3.) Due to the urgency of the matter, Leopold and Shapiro requested expedited processing of their FOIA request. The FBI failed to respond. This is a violation of the Freedom of Information Act.

4.) Not including this new lawsuit, Shapiro and Leopold already have two FOIA lawsuits against the FBI federal agencies for records on investigations involving Donald Trump.

In the first of these lawsuits, among other things, Shapiro and Leopold are suing the FBI and Secret Service for records on Donald Trump’s thinly-veiled assassination remarks regarding Hillary Clinton, and his less than veiled campaign trail call for Russian hacking of Hillary Clinton’s emails. The FBI unlawfully failed to respond to Shapiro and Leopold’s FOIA request, and then slow-walked an initial response to Shapiro and Leopold’s lawsuit until after the election.

Notably, the FBI’s response indicates the FBI might indeed be investigating Donald Trump for these incidents. However, in stark contrast to Director Comey’s pre-election rush to inform Congress that the FBI might re-open its investigation of Hillary Clinton, in this case the FBI dragged its feet to avoid revealing the same about Donald Trump until after the election.

5.) In the second of these lawsuits, Leopold and Shapiro are suing the FBI for all FBI records on the Trump Organization, the Trump Foundation, Trump Entertainment Resorts, and Trump University.

6.) Shapiro and Leopold’s lawsuit filed today is part of the work of Operation 45. Operation 45 is a new 501(c)(3) charitable organization founded by MIT/Harvard’s Shapiro, and attorney Jeffrey Light, to ensure transparency and accountability for the incoming Trump/Pence administration.

According to Shapiro

Regarding this lawsuit:
The purportedly “apolitical” FBI just played an unprecedented role in perhaps the most controversial and contested election in modern U.S. history. The public absolutely needs to know how and why the nation’s leading federal law enforcement agency came to play such a determinative role in American presidential politics.

Regarding Operation 45 (Of which this lawsuit is a part):
Given Trump’s authoritarian aspirations and overt contempt for the Constitution and a free press, American civil liberties and privacy now face a profoundly clear and present danger.
Trump must not be allowed to conduct his presidency from the shadows, and he must not be allowed to cripple the Freedom of Information act. The need is urgent for aggressive work to keep President Trump and his administration transparent and accountable.

Regarding FOIA more broadly:
Secrecy is a cancer on the body of democracy.
The democratic process cannot meaningfully function without an informed citizenry, and such a citizenry is impossible without broad public access to information about the operations of government.
The Freedom of Information Act is one of the most underappreciated elements of the entire American experiment. The notion that the records of government are the property of the people, and all we need to do to get them is to ask, is radically democratic. But FOIA is broken. Sadly, this is why we now need to sue to compel FBI compliance with federal law.

A complete copy of the complaint filed in court this morning can be viewed here

To arrange an interview with Jason Leopold and Ryan Shapiro, please email or text Andy Stepanian at andy@sparrowmedia.net or 631.291.3010. You can follow Jason Leopold on twitter at @JasonLeopold and Ryan Shapiro on twitter at @_rshapiro

The statement reads:

A Message from MIT Faculty Reaffirming our Shared Values

The President-elect has appointed individuals to positions of power who have endorsed racism, misogyny and religious bigotry, and denied the widespread scientific consensus on climate change. Regardless of our political views, these endorsements violate principles at the core of MIT’s mission. At this time, it is important to reaffirm the values we hold in common.

We, the undersigned faculty at MIT, thus affirm the following principles:

• We unconditionally reject every form of bigotry, discrimination, hateful rhetoric, and hateful action, whether directed towards one’s race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, disability, citizenship, political views, socioeconomic status, veteran status, or immigration status.
• We endorse MIT’s values of open, respectful discourse and exchange of ideas from the widest variety of intellectual, religious, class, cultural, and political perspectives.
• We uphold the principles of the scientific method, of fact- and reason-based objective inquiry. Science is not a special interest; it is not optional. Science is a foundational ingredient in how we as a society analyze, understand, and solve the most difficult challenges that we face.

For any member of our community who may feel fear or oppression, our doors are open and we are ready to help. We pledge to work with all members of the community – students, faculty, staff, postdoctoral researchers, and administrators – to defend these principles today and in the times ahead.

MIT faculty signers share their thoughts about the statement:

Director of the MIT Media Lab Joi Ito: “Academic institutions have historically been havens to protect diversity of opinions and the freedom to express those opinions when the political climate has impinged on this freedom. It appears that we are entering a period where the political climate requires us to assert our leadership to protect and foster diversity and scientific inquiry itself.”

Professor of Physics Max Tegmark, author of ‘Our Mathematical Universe’, and founder of The Future of Life Institute: “If we share the values of our community, it’s important not merely to be thankful for them, but also to defend them.”

Professor of Economics Jonathan Gruber: “Public policy discussions have moved away from facts to conjecture and opinion.  The only way to reverse this dangerous trend is to reaffirm the scientific method and its sound application to the important policy issues of the day.”

Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Nancy Kanwisher: “It is important to draw the line between the very wide range of legitimate political debate that we encourage at MIT, and the deliberate denial of scientific fact. Many of those appointed by the new administration are not conducting business as usual, but sharply departing from respectful public discourse and from scientific consensus.”

Professor of Biological Engineering and Brain and Cognitive Sciences Ed Boyden, Co-Director of the MIT Center for Neurobiological Engineering and recent recipient of the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences: “In uncertain times, it’s important to take a stand. At MIT, we stand against bigotry and hateful action, and for science and facts.  I’m excited to see hundreds of my fellow faculty take this stand together.”

This effort was initiated by a small group of MIT faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers (including Nancy Kanwisher, Roger Levy, Sarah Schwettmann, and Rosa Lafer-Sousa), who joined together to conceive a public message to the campus community and the world at large. In a grassroots effort, they invited members of the MIT community to participate in the national dialogue through this statement affirming values central to MIT’s mission of commitment “to generating, disseminating, and preserving knowledge, and to working with others to bring this knowledge to bear on the world’s great challenges.”

For the complete list of signatories and more information, visit www.mitvalues.org