An expansive campaign has been launched by a group of non-profit organizations in hopes of stopping billionaire Elon Musk from finalizing his attempted purchase of Twitter.
As summarized by a press release published at Accountable Tech, which is one of the groups involved in the effort, the new campaign “will utilize all points of leverage, including legal and regulatory mechanisms, strategic engagement with key stakeholders like advertisers and investors, and ongoing grassroots education and mobilization.” That same press release summarizes concerns about Musk’s proposed Twitter acquisition deal by noting it “could have swift and devastating impacts on our information ecosystem if consummated, threatening the basic safeguards Twitter has established to mitigate the real-world harms it can drive.”
Targets of the advocacy effort, as mentioned, will include federal authorities. “The campaign will seek to ensure that pertinent agencies and regulators utilize the full scope of their authority in reviewing this deal, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – which previously sought an officer-and-director bar against Musk for similar misconduct at Tesla – along with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC),” that press release says.
The involvement of “concerned shareholders” — apparently at both Twitter and Tesla, both of which have recently seen significant fluctuations in their stock prices as Musk’s antics have unfolded — will apparently also be sought, according to that press release. Besides Accountable Tech, the groups behind this endeavor include the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), Fair Vote UK, Friends of the Earth, GLAAD, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, Media Matters for America, MediaJustice, MoveOn, Public Citizen, SumOfUs, The Sparrow Project, and UltraViolet. Read more at this link.
Musk is also facing federal investigative efforts in connection to his involvement with Twitter. Referring to an earlier disclosure in relation to earlier investments in Twitter he made, the SEC “asked [Musk] why he listed his stake as passive while making public statements about the company,” The Washington Post explained. The Securities and Exchange Commission also sought information from Musk regarding his failure to make the required disclosure on-time that he passed a certain level in his investment in Twitter. Before making that disclosure, Musk bought additional Twitter stock, the price of which is broadly believed to have been kept down by Musk keeping his prior investments private. (Revealing the investments would have driven up investors’ interest in the company.) Musk continues to attract approval from corners of the right-wing political ecosystem whose support shows enough on its own about the dismal direction he’s going — if Tucker Carlson’s in your corner, then you can rest assured that’s a bad corner.
