Twitter Is Toxic And Must Do More: Civil Rights Coalition Says Political Ad Ban Fails To Address Online Hate

“If Twitter can ban political ads, it can make significant, meaningful changes to curb online hate. The company should begin by banning white supremacists.”

Change the Terms, a coalition of over 55 civil rights groups committed to fighting online hate, responded today to Twitter’s announcement of its full political ad policy.

Jessica J. González, co-founder of Change the Terms and Vice President of Strategy for Free Press said:

“Twitter’s new ad policy does not meaningfully address online hate, which continues to threaten the lives of communities of color and seed real-world violence.

“Paid ads are just one element of the insidious toxicity on Twitter: Racism, white supremacy, hate speech, and content inciting violence are widespread on the platform. Politicians, public figures, and political leaders regularly weaponize Twitter, and they don’t need to pay for ads to do it. A hateful tweet can go viral and incite real violence that threatens lives.

“If Twitter can ban political ads, it can make significant, meaningful changes to curb online hate. The company should begin by banning white supremacists from the platform, who poison its discourse with hate. More than 100,000 people have signed the petition urging Twitter leadership to meet that demand. White supremacists like Richard Spencer and David Duke can indoctrinate millions of users with their hateful content, without using paid ads. As long as white supremacists are welcome to use Twitter as a megaphone for their toxic hate, the platform will continue to fail in its responsibility to protect its users, especially people of color.”

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Change the Terms is a coalition calling on technology companies to institute and enforce service agreement prohibitions on hateful activities to protect public safety and respect diverse voices. The coalition includes more than 50 civil rights, human rights, technology policy and consumer protection organizations dedicated to encouraging internet companies, social media sites, payment processors and chat services to commit to fair, effective and transparent rules and practices for content moderation.