Dear friends,
Democracy
is under full-scale attack, worldwide.
Russia's
dictator 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 our elections. And it's working.
But this is the 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
choose 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 for the next 12 months, 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;
- calling out Russian disinformation online,
setting up an army of citizen 'Elves' to take on Putin's
troll army;
- battling the far right's divisive narratives in
country after country, as elections approach.
History
will be made in the coming months.
We're facing crucial
elections in the US, Brazil, Europe, Canada, India and
more. 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 Europe in 2019.
We need to scale up.
Now. We can do this. People power beat the
far-right 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 the ones 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
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
A Former Russian Troll Explains How to Spread Fake
News (Time)
http://time.com/5168202/russia-troll-internet-research-agency/
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
