To: Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey: Stop aiding voter deception
Voting by text message doesn’t exist in any state, but trolls on Twitter are spreading that myth to deceive voters -- particularly targeting voters of color -- out of showing up at the polls.
There’s no room in our democracy for these dirty tricks -- and Twitter must immediately remove false information trying to confuse and deceive voters.
There’s no room in our democracy for these dirty tricks -- and Twitter must immediately remove false information trying to confuse and deceive voters.
Why is this important?
Every voter deserves to have their voice heard and vote counted. But according to the Washington Post & others, some Trump supporters don’t agree -- they’re targeting Clinton voters with fake ads that falsely claim you can vote by text message.
The ads are made to look like official campaign ads -- one says “Avoid the line. Vote from home. Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925,” with a picture of Clinton and her campaign’s logo. Even worse, many of these deceptive ads feature and are targeted at Black voters and Spanish speakers.
Activists have asked Twitter to remove them, but Twitter says that attempting to deceive voters doesn’t violate its terms of service. That’s no excuse for letting trolls use your platform to discourage Americans from making their voices heard. And while they've deleted some of the deceptive posts, there's more out there -- and no plan from Twitter to prevent this from happening again or to change its terms of service.
We need to put immediate, massive public pressure on Twitter to take these deceptive ads down. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is looking to sell the company right now, so they’ll do anything to avoid bad press.
It’s great that new technology has made voting easier and more accessible -- like online voter registration and automatic voter registration. But there’s no such thing as voting by text message -- and lying about it to trick voters into staying home hurts our democracy.
Twitter must take a decisive stand against voter deception, stop allowing trolls use its platform to confuse and discourage voters, and remove any and all ads on its platform that use false information to prevent Americans from showing up at the polls.
The ads are made to look like official campaign ads -- one says “Avoid the line. Vote from home. Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925,” with a picture of Clinton and her campaign’s logo. Even worse, many of these deceptive ads feature and are targeted at Black voters and Spanish speakers.
Activists have asked Twitter to remove them, but Twitter says that attempting to deceive voters doesn’t violate its terms of service. That’s no excuse for letting trolls use your platform to discourage Americans from making their voices heard. And while they've deleted some of the deceptive posts, there's more out there -- and no plan from Twitter to prevent this from happening again or to change its terms of service.
We need to put immediate, massive public pressure on Twitter to take these deceptive ads down. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is looking to sell the company right now, so they’ll do anything to avoid bad press.
It’s great that new technology has made voting easier and more accessible -- like online voter registration and automatic voter registration. But there’s no such thing as voting by text message -- and lying about it to trick voters into staying home hurts our democracy.
Twitter must take a decisive stand against voter deception, stop allowing trolls use its platform to confuse and discourage voters, and remove any and all ads on its platform that use false information to prevent Americans from showing up at the polls.