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Dear Friend,

Disinformation has made a bad year worse -- from social media feeds filled with disinformation attempting to sow doubt about the electoral process and discredit the results, to falsehoods spread about Black Lives Matter, to vaccine- and covid-related disinformation that has hindered efforts to control the pandemic. As we look forward to what we hope will be a brighter new year in 2020, we must as a country get a handle on the disinformation crisis to save our democracy.

Tech companies have proved, over and over again, that they are unwilling ([link removed]) to meaningfully ([link removed]) self-regulate ([link removed]) . Disinformation continues to be organically promoted and encouraged by Facebook's algorithm. This problem won't get better without government action. With a new presidential administration taking power, the time to pass meaningful reforms to end the spread of dangerous disinformation online is now -- and we need your help to make that happen.

Please donate ([link removed]) to help us hold tech companies accountable for disinformation.

MapLight has spent 2020 spotlighting the way that tech companies subvert regulatory attempts, from aggressive lobbying of Congress and federal agencies ([link removed]) to campaign contributions to the House Judiciary Committee during antitrust investigations ([link removed]) . ([link removed]) In 2021, we're turning up the heat. We'll continue our hard-hitting journalism work to shine a light on how tech companies attempt to evade responsibility for their role in spreading disinformation online, and we'll organize for change.

Will you join us? Your gift of $20 or more ([link removed]) will help fund our journalism in the new year, ensuring that we can keep holding tech companies' feet to the fire until this problem is solved. We can't go into the 2022 and 2024 elections with the same online disinformation ecosystem we had in 2020. Our democracy hangs in the balance.

Together, we can create that brighter new year. Please join us. ([link removed])

Thank you,
Dan


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