Civil rights leaders and groups condemned Elon Musk's recent decision to reinstate former President Trump's Twitter account, which was suspended after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Why it matters: They are calling on companies to stop advertising on the social media platform as Musk's chaotic takeover continues to bring a host of changes and upheaval to the platform.
- Trump's Twitter account was reinstated on Saturday after millions of accounts voted in favor of the decision through a poll Musk posted Friday night.
What they're saying: "In Elon Musk’s Twittersphere, you can incite an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, which led to the deaths of multiple people, and still be allowed to spew hate speech and violent conspiracies on his platform," NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement, according to CNBC.
Any advertiser still funding Twitter should immediately pause all advertising now.
— Derrick Johnson (@DerrickNAACP) November 20, 2022
- "Unless and until Musk can be trusted to enforce Twitter’s prior community standards, the platform is not safe for users or advertisers," #StopToxicTwitter, a coalition of over 60 civil rights and civil society groups, said in a statement on Sunday.
- "For those still advertising on Twitter right now: know that you are contributing directly to an erratic billionaire’s decimation of Twitter and its rapid devolution into utter chaos," it added.
The big picture: Trump has said he wouldn't use Twitter if he is reinstated, and he agreed to some restrictions upon forming Truth Social.
- Trump on Truth Social had posted about Musk’s poll saying to “vote with positivity” and ”don’t worry we aren’t going anywhere.”
Go deeper ... Elon Musk: Twitter to deemphasize "negative" tweets
