Civil Rights Coalition Pressures Brands Anew After Trump’s Unbanning on Twitter

Elon Musk has riled up civil rights activists yet again.

A coalition of civil rights activists is putting pressure on advertisers to pull their ads off Twitter after The Big Twit himself lifted former US President Donald Trump's ban on Nov. 20. 

You may remember that Musk lifted Trump's ban on the microblogging platform as a result of the poll he made to determine if he should do it. 15 million people voted "yes."

Civil Rights Coalition Demands Details

A report from Reuters mentioned that the #StopToxicTwitter coalition stated that Musk has yet to form a content moderation council just as he promised on Oct. 28. Additionally, the coalition's statement said that Musk broke his promise to advertisers regarding his promise to form a content moderation council before reinstating the accounts of banned people on the platform.

Media Matters president Angelo Carusone said that Musk's inaction on the council's formation is a breach of his promise and that he was lying from the beginning. 

Jessica Gonzalez, co-chief executive of media and democracy group Free Press, said in a press release that Musk has gone back on every promise he made to civil-rights leaders and advertisers in less than three weeks.

Derrick Johnson, the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), described Musk's Twittersphere as a platform where people can incite an insurrection at the Capitol and still be allowed to "spew hate speech and violent conspiracies," per CNBC.

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He also added that any advertiser still funding Twitter should immediately pull them back. 

"If Elon Musk continues to run Twitter like this, using garbage polls that do not represent the American people and the needs of our democracy, God help us all," Johnson said. 

Media Matters, Free Press, and the NAACP are members of the #StopToxicTwitter coalition, per its original website.

The Story Behind The Coalition's Demands

You may remember that Musk reinstated Donald Trump's Twitter account on Nov. 20 after almost three years since the Capitol insurrection that occurred on Jan. 6, 2021. 

Trump was previously banned from Twitter due to his using his Twitter account to rile up supporters into storming the Capitol during the certification of votes.

Musk assured advertisers in a tweet that he will be forming a content moderation council composed of members that will provide "widely diverse viewpoints." 

Additionally, Musk said that there would be no major content decisions or account reinstatements before that council convenes, and that Twitter will not run ads alongside questionable posts. 

However, The Verge noted that Musk failed to clarify what viewpoints he is looking for, how many members it will have, and how different it will be from Twitter's former content moderation and policy teams.

Whether or not this is a sign that Musk isn't planning on forming the council is unclear. What is clear is that people were surprised that Musk used a poll to determine if Trump should get his account back.

Twitter is unable to give a response addressing the coalition's statements as its communications team has lost many of its members after Musk's takeover, though this may soon change as Musk may be done laying off people.

Related Article: Civil Rights Groups Call for Companies To Boycott Twitter Following Mass Layoffs

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