I’m Vicky and I’m a campaign director with SumOfUs, and for the
past year I’ve been coordinating our work to rein in the power of
Big Tech companies.
The fight for a better, safer internet is a long-haul one. But
there’s no doubt we’re making major progress – in the last few
months alone we’ve seen huge breakthroughs, from a legislative
triumph in Europe to getting Meta’s harmful business model firmly on
investors’ agenda. And none of it would have happened without
you.
Together we’re taking huge strides to hold giant tech
corporations like Meta and Google to account and push back against
their harmful practices. And we want to make sure you know about the
amazing work you’ve made possible! So here’s some highlights from
the year so far:
Regulation at
last!
In April, after months of wrangling, European legislators
finally agreed to pass a strong internet law – the Digital Services
Act. It’s hard to overstate the importance of this
legislation, which will be the first in the world to truly rein in
the power of the tech giants and be a blueprint for governments
everywhere.
While it doesn’t include everything we campaigned for, the law
brings in powerful new rules for the world’s biggest tech platforms,
and that’s thanks to the relentless pressure SumOfUs members and
other civil society groups put on lawmakers in Europe.
At critical moments, we quickly mobilised to flood key MEPs with
thousands of messages demanding action. And we coupled this with
behind the scenes advocacy – including in-person deliveries to key
decision-makers consisting of beautiful books with EU citizens’
hopes and dreams for a better online world. Tens of thousands of us
also joined citizens and organisations across Europe in signing a
People’s Declaration against Big Tech, showing that this is a
priority for people everywhere.
And it worked! We saw off attempts to weaken the
bill, like a dangerous proposal for a media exemption which would
have allowed pretty much anyone calling themselves media to spread
disinformation with abandon. And we made sure transparency stayed at
the heart of the bill, with measures to ensure independent
researchers can access key data from the platforms so we aren't
reliant on tech companies to come clean about the scale of
disinformation on their platforms.
My colleague Flora who coordinated the efforts targeting Brussels
says “we wouldn't have such a strong law without this community, and
now we have a blueprint for how governments around the world can
regulate tech companies and protect users from harm.”
Mark Zuckerberg’s toxic
metaverse
In addition to targeted pressure on decision-makers,
we’ve been exposing the harms of Big Tech through cutting
edge research that has garnered headlines across the world
– making sure these harms stay firmly in the spotlight, and forcing
the platforms to take action. As Facebook’s future looks
increasingly uncertain, Mark Zuckerberg has been hyping up his
metaverse plan. So SumOfUs swung into gear, sending researchers into
the Metaverse to see and document what it is really like using the
platform.
In just an hour, they had been exposed to upsetting experiences
from a gun shoot-out to sexual assault – the researchers were
astounded by how quick and easy it was to stumble into disturbing
situations and how traumatic virtual encounters can be.
My colleague Andrea who oversaw the small team of researchers
says: “Watching their firsthand encounters in the metaverse proved
that the harms that can happen in a virtual world are very real and
very disturbing. If Meta cares about the safety of its users, more
protections need to be put into place before it’s too late.”
The report
received overwhelming media attention, with hundreds of
outlets around the world from the US to Italy to India covering the
research, and highlighting our recommendations.
SumOfUs Metaverse research making headlines
And we’re having an impact! Within days of our
research gaining massive attention and dozens of journalists
requesting comments from Meta, the company announced several
measures to address harassment on its metaverse platform.
Unfortunately the measures don’t go nearly far enough to adequately
protect users from harm, but the rapid response from Meta shows that
our campaigning is forcing a response.
Rewan who helped oversee the report says “Instead of addressing
all the toxic content flooding his current platforms, Zuckerberg is
chasing the dollar signs by plunging head-first into the Metaverse.
It’s incredibly irresponsible, and we’re already seeing serious
harms. But our campaigning is creating shockwaves and we won’t be
backing off anytime soon.”
Investors on
board!!
We’ve also taken our members’ demands to clean up Big Tech to
investors and company boards, filing shareholder resolutions
that have helped inform and mobilise investors who are
increasingly worried about the harms and believe running a tech
business doesn’t have to mean putting profits over people. There are
three that I’d love to highlight:
Apple:
We exposed Apple’s use of Uyghur forced labour in its
supply chain and mobilized customers and shareholders to pressure
the company to act. After we staged a bold visual protest
at the Apple store in central DC, over a third of Apple investors
voted in favour of our resolution. Over 188,000 SumOfUs members have
meanwhile signed the petition
to date, and our Apple campaign has been covered by major global
media outlets like the Financial Times and Reuters. As the US law to
outlaw Uyghur forced labour comes into force, Apple is under growing
pressure to root out forced labour in its supply chain.
SumOfUs protest outside Apple store in central DC, in Politico
Our Apple resolution in the Financial
Times
Meta:
SumOfUs members co-filed two important resolutions at
Meta – one challenging the company to report on the human
rights impact of the Metaverse, and the second raising the
ineffectiveness of the company’s Risk and Audit committee, which is
supposed to fix the harms caused by platforms like Facebook and
Instagram.
We reached out to over 4000 major investors who have shares in
Meta warning them of the risks that this company poses. We ran TV
ads on US networks pointing out the need for change at Meta, and
SumOfUs' Executive Director, Emma, addressed shareholders at Meta's
annual meeting calling on them to back our resolutions. Even though
the resolutions didn’t pass (Mark Zuckerberg owns the majority of
votes and so can kill any proposal he doesn’t agree with) a third of
independent shareholders backed our resolution – helping to add
pressure on Zuckerberg to act.
Our Metaverse resolution in the New
York Post
Alphabet:
SumOfUs members forced Alphabet, Google’s parent company,
to address the implications of placing data centres in countries
with human rights abuses - for example Saudi Arabia, where
the company intends to build a large facility. This resolution
received a massive 57.6% of the independent investor vote. We can –
and will - use this strong support in the coming months to pressure
Google to reconsider partnerships with such brutal regimes.
Our Alphabet resolution in the New
York Post
The best part of shareholder activism is getting to work
closely with members of the SumOfUs community who put their hand up
to help file the shareholder resolutions with their
investments.
Christina, who was burning the midnight oil to get these
resolutions drafted and approved by the SEC, said “It’s been a very
exciting shareholder season made possible by the SumOfUs members who
helped us file. Bringing these important issues right to board
members and investors gives us major leverage in our work together
for a just future.”
And Mari, one of the SumOfUs members who helped us file said
“After over 50 years of investing I can assure you that the
management deeply cares about shareholder opinion, and shareholders
uniting is a powerful tool!”
A new youth
movement
Last but not least, we’ve organised dozens of students at
Stanford University to publicly pledge that they will not go work
for Big Tech – kickstarting a larger campaign to get
students to boycott the industry.
Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen spoke at a SumOfUs event to
inspire students to take a stand against the tech companies. And our
billboard van has been driving around campus this Spring and Summer
calling on students to boycott Big Tech. Perhaps best of all, a few
weeks ago we flew an aeroplane banner during the commencement speech
at the Stanford graduation reminding students to stand up against
Big Tech’s power. And now we’re gearing up to roll out this
campaign across the US.
And that’s just in the last few months – we’ve achieved so much
together already, taking on some of the world’s most powerful tech
giants and winning. And because of this incredible community coming
together, we can push for even bigger changes in the months
ahead.
