Yahoo News NAACP Calls On Twitter Advertisers To Take Action After Trump's Reinstatement
The NAACP is asking companies to hit pause on Twitter advertisements following the return of former President Donald Trump’s account on Saturday.
Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the civil rights group, implored advertisers to take action after the social media platform’s users voted for the account to be reinstated in a poll posted by Twitter owner Elon Musk.
Musk’s Twitter poll collected votes from users for 24 hours as 51.8% of its over 15 million votes sided for Trump’s reinstatement on the platform.
The reinstatement marks the first time Trump will be able to use the platform since his permanent ban under previous ownership following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” Musk tweeted.
Johnson wrote in a tweet Saturday that advertisers still funding the platform should “immediately pause” their advertising.
Any advertiser still funding Twitter should immediately pause all advertising now.
— Derrick Johnson (@DerrickNAACP) November 20, 2022
“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,” Johnson, who has previously called on companies to pause advertising on Twitter, said in a statement.
“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,” he added.
Johnson’s call comes as CBS News, Balenciaga and Playbill have reevaluated their usage of Twitter — which has reportedly seen mass resignations from employees and abrupt firings — in recent days.
CBS News announced on Friday that it would suspend its Twitter usage “in light of the uncertainty around Twitter and out of an abundance of caution,” Forbes reported.
The move also impacts the network’s owned-and-operated local stations, including its stations in Los Angeles and New York City.
Fashion brand Balenciaga told Vogue that it deleted its Twitter account early last week; however, it did not share a reason why.
