Tell Twitter: Dump White Supremacists
Over the course of only eight days, white supremacist and misogynist violence has killed dozens of people in tragic mass shootings in Gilroy, California, El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. At least two of the shooters appear to have been white supremacists. Of course Gilroy and El Paso aren’t the first communities to have mass murder visited upon their doorsteps by white supremacists — nor will they be the last.
As Black and Brown people, we are not safe in the United States. In Gilroy, the shooter even stooped so low as to murder a six-year-old Brown boy. We don’t want to live like this. And we’re not going to take it lying down!
As we approach the two-year anniversary of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, it’s hard to not take stock of what online platforms have done — or not done — to stop the spread of white supremacy.
While the rally and death of Heather Heyer served as a wake-up call for many tech companies, Twitter has done very little to stop white supremacists from organizing, fundraising, recruiting and normalizing attacks on women and people of color on their platform.
Words have consequences. White supremacists, with Trump at the helm, have consistently dehumanized our communities, calling us ‘invaders,’ an ‘invasion’ and an ‘infestation’ over social media — words we saw parroted in the El Paso shooter's manifesto.
Twitter has allowed white supremacists to run rampant on its platform, and enabled them to organize real-world events centered around their hateful ideology and publicize their acts of violence. The company’s failure to stand strong against white supremacists is putting people of color, immigrants, religious minorities, LGBTQIA+ people and women — common targets of organized online hate — in danger.
No one has a right to be amplified by online platforms. It’s long past time for Twitter to step up.
Here's the message we will deliver to Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey:
Over the course of only eight days, white supremacist violence killed dozens of people in tragic mass shootings in Gilroy, California and El Paso, Texas. What makes these devastating events that much worse is that we know Gilroy and El Paso are not the first communities to have mass murder visited upon their doorsteps by white supremacists — nor will they be the last.
Thanks to the megaphone Twitter provides, neo-Nazi Richard Spencer, Donald Trump and countless others have changed for the worse what we accept as “normal” in public discourse.
In fact, Trump has consistently dehumanized our communities, for instance, by calling Brown people ‘invaders,’ an ‘invasion’ and an ‘infestation’— words we saw mirrored in the El Paso shooter's manifesto.
Twitter has emboldened white supremacists and allowed them to organize real-world events centered around their hateful ideology and publicize their acts of violence. Its inaction is putting people of color, immigrants, religious minorities, LGBTQIA+ people and women — common targets of organized online hate — in danger.
No one is guaranteed a right to Twitter amplification. We’re calling on you to join us on the right side of history: Ban all white supremacists from your platform. Adopt the Change the Term coalition’s model terms of service. Remove Twitter from the chain of events that spill over into real-world violence.
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