Dear friends,
Democracy is under full-scale attack, worldwide.
Russia's President has forged an alliance with the far-right, and deployed an army of hackers and trolls, legions of fake social media accounts, and suitcases full of dirty money to sabotage our public debate and elections.
A new Oxford University study confirms that vast sums -- hundreds of millions -- are being spent on such tactics to manipulate us. Crucial elections are approaching in the US, Brazil, Europe, India and more -- the world is at a tipping point.
But this is a moment Avaaz was made for. The threat we're up against is everywhere, but so are we. That threat is political, but we can be too when we need to be. That threat claims to be people-powered, but we're the REAL people power. And some battle the far-right with hate and anger, but we know that just feeds them -- that
hope and love and smart strategy is how we'll win the world we ALL want. All that makes this moment not just an opportunity for our movement, but a responsibility. Let's rise to it.
Click to give just the price of a cup of coffee per week and power the effort to defeat the trolls, save democracy, and protect everything we love:
Our movement is mobilising to defend democracy on all fronts:
- hammering Facebook and others to clean up their sites by shutting down fake news and troll accounts;
- pushing for governments to defend our democracies by passing laws to protect elections from interference;
- disrupting disinformation online, setting up teams of citizen 'Elves' to take on Putin's 'trolls';
- battling the far right's divisive narratives in country after country, as elections approach.
History will be made in the coming months. Brazil has a terrifying far-right candidate leading the polls. The Russians are scaling up their disinformation war for the US fall elections. The far-right is organizing to destroy the European Union in 2019.
We need to scale up. Now. We can do this. Real people power contained the damage of the far-right's troll armies in French, German and Dutch elections. The resistance is rising in the US. The British people are calling out the Brexit scam. All this because we all chose to stand and fight with hope and love and a powerful determination to stand for truth and human values.
Let's ramp up the pressure, and make history: Avaaz doesn't accept donations from anyone but small online member donations. We're 100% clean and independent, audited every year. Unlike the troll farms funded by governments and billionaires, we're honest, transparent and authentically people-powered. That's why we're we're so needed to get this job done, and win the internet back for democracy. Let's do it, and build the world we dream of.
With hope and determination,
Ricken, Heather, Danny, Allison, Marigona, Rosa, Jenny and the rest of the Avaaz team
More information:
Putin, Trump and the West's new ideological alliance (Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/12/14/putin-trump-and-the-wests-new-ideological-alliance/?utm_term=.efa5aabcd85f Challenging Truth and Trust: A Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation (The Oxford study referenced above)
http://comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/cybertroops2018/ Facebook Has Identified Ongoing Political Influence Campaign (NY Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/31/us/politics/facebook-political-campaign-midterms.html Lies, propaganda and fake news: a challenge for our age (BBC)
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170301-lies-propaganda-and-fake-news-a-grand-challenge-of-our-age Collusion: How Russia Helped Trump Win the White House by Luke Harding - Review (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/14/collusion-how-russia-helped-trump-win-the-white-house-by-luke-harding-review Fake news travels six times faster than the truth on Twitter (New Scientist)
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2163226-fake-news-travels-six-times-faster-than-the-truth-on-twitter/ Will Brazil's Next President Be a Far-Right Nationalist? (Foreign Affairs)
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/brazil/2018-07-12/will-brazils-next-president-be-far-right-nationalist
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