Exploring the Impact of Elon Musk’s Comments on Nonprofit Affiliations with X
On March 1st, Voter Participation Center (VPC) and the Center for Voter Information (CVI) will be leaving X, formerly known as Twitter, in response to Elon Musk’s antisemitism and normalization of violent extremism. We are calling on other organizations to follow suit, and rebuke bigotry and extremist behavior.
For more than two decades, VPC and CVI have used high volume digital and direct mail outreach to register eligible Americans to vote and encourage them to turn out, targeting Americans from underrepresented populations – including people of color, young people, and unmarried women. In that time, we have helped more than 6.6 million people register to vote and also helped millions upon millions more turn out to vote and participate in our democracy.
VPC and CVI have also used many social media platforms to share news and highlight information about voting to our followers. An accurately informed and engaged electorate is vital to the future of our country. However, we cannot continue to engage with voters on a platform on which the owner encourages and engages in behavior that makes marginalized communities unsafe. VPC and CVI are putting out a call to all like-minded individuals and organizations, especially those in the civic engagement space, and asking them to reject Musk’s extremism and leave X.
“Enough is enough. It is time for organizations and individuals to stand up to Elon Musk and leave X,” said Tom Lopach, President and CEO of the nonprofit and nonpartisan Voter Participation Center (VPC) and Center for Voter Information (CVI), “In recent weeks the extremism and antisemitism of the owner of X has been on display for all to see. We have watched Elon Musk’s sieg heil salute, done twice while standing at the Presidential podium, his jokes about the Holocaust, and his speech to the far-right German AfD Party suggesting that it was time to stop focusing on ‘past guilt.’ It is clear to me, and clear to VPC and CVI, that it is time to engage eligible voters on other platforms and not on X.”
VPC and CVI will cease posting on X on March 1. The organizations can be found on BlueSky, Threads, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
The Voter Participation Center and Center for Voter Information are non-profit, non-partisan organizations founded in 2003 to help members of the New American Majority – unmarried women, people of color and young people – register and vote. Since then, the organizations have helped over 6 million people register and cast ballots.
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