Sleeping Giants

This article is about the internet activism initiative. For other uses, see Sleeping Giant.

Sleeping Giants

Sleeping Giants logo
Formation	November 2016; 7 years ago (2016-11)
Founders	Matt Rivitz, Nandini Jammi
Founded at	United States

Matt Rivitz in 2022

Nandini Jammi in 2020

Sleeping Giants is a social media activism organization aiming to pressure companies into removing advertisements from several conservative news outlets by publicly accusing them of malpractices such as misinformation and hate speech.^[1] The campaign started in November 2016,^[2] shortly after Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 United States presidential election, with the launch of a Twitter account aiming to boycott Breitbart News.^[3][4] The campaign has sections in Australia,^[5] Brazil,^[6] Canada,^[7] France^[8] and Germany.^[9]

The American campaign operated anonymously until The Daily Caller identified freelance copywriter Matt Rivitz as the founder, a story confirmed by Rivitz.^[10] Shortly afterward, a New York Times profile of Rivitz and freelance copywriter and marketing consultant Nandini Jammi said the two ran the campaign's Twitter account "along with other still anonymous contributors".^[11] Other reports identified Jammi as "co-founder".^[12][13] Jammi later left Sleeping Giants, saying that Rivitz "gaslighted me out of the movement we built together".^[14][15]

Campaign against Breitbart News

The organization primarily operates from its Twitter account, and also has a Facebook account.^[1]

As of February 2017, 820 companies had joined the campaign and stopped advertising on Breitbart News, according to statistics provided by the organization.^[2] By May 2017, thousands of advertisers had stopped advertising with Breitbart.^[4] The list of advertisers includes Allstate, AT&T, Autodesk, BMW, Deutsche Telekom, HP Inc., Kellogg's, Lenovo, Lyft, Visa, Vimeo, Nest, and Warby Parker.^{[16][2][17][18]}

The Canadian government also stopped advertising on Breitbart News after declaring that its content "did not align with the Government's Code of Value and Ethics". Sleeping Giants' strategy combines traditional approaches to pressure advertisers with direct online activism, aiming to recruit and mobilize a large population of social media users. According to Slate, Sleeping Giants' strategy is similar to the one adopted in 2014 by the Gamergate movement against Gawker Media.^[19]

Breitbart News responded with a campaign to boycott Kellogg's products.^[18][20]

Other campaigns

Sleeping Giants was involved in the campaign pressuring advertisers to drop The O'Reilly Factor after the discovery of five sexual harassment settlements by host Bill O'Reilly and Fox News, which resulted in the show's cancellation.^[21] The group also participated in organizing the boycott of The Ingraham Angle and pressured social networks to drop Alex Jones.^[22]

Since May 2017, the Canadian section has used the same methods to persuade advertisers to remove ads from Rebel News, a Canadian far-right media website.^[23][7]

The French section also campaigns in a similar manner with regard to the French far-right website Boulevard Voltaire [fr].^[24][8]

An Australian section named Sleeping Giants Oz was established in August 2017.^[25] In August 2018, Sleeping Giants Oz called on advertisers to boycott Sky News Australia after it broadcast an interview with Blair Cottrell, an Australian far-right extremist.^[25][5]

A Brazilian section, Sleeping Giants Brasil, was established in May 2020.^[26][27] Sleeping Giants Brasil gained traction^[6] against Jornal da Cidade On-line, Conexão Política and Brasil Sem Medo, right-wing and conservative outlets which support Jair Bolsonaro.^[26][28] They also tried to defund Olavo de Carvalho's YouTube channel and online courses. Consequently PayPal decided to remove their services from Carvalho's online seminars^[29] upon violations of their terms and conditions of use due to his inflammatory rhetoric, polemic remarks and hate speech.^[30][31][32]

See also

• Stop Funding Hate
• 2018 NRA boycott

References

1. Farhi, Paul (September 22, 2017). "The mysterious group that's picking Breitbart apart, one tweet at a time". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on September 22, 2017. Retrieved October 5, 2020.
2. Kerr, Dara (February 3, 2017). "Tech companies' newest cause celebre? Boycott Breitbart". CNET. Archived from the original on June 11, 2019. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
3. Kennedy, Pagan (January 7, 2017). "How to Destroy the Business Model of Breitbart and Fake News". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on September 18, 2017. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
4. Kramer, Mattea (May 23, 2017). "These Protesters Are Hitting Trump Where It Actually Hurts". The Nation. ISSN 0027-8378. Archived from the original on December 13, 2019. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
5. "Sleeping Giants Oz: How an anonymous Twitter account took on Sky News". ABC News (Australia). November 28, 2018. Archived from the original on June 25, 2020. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
6. Mann, Richard (May 24, 2020). "Rapidly Growing, Sleeping Giants Movement Annoys Bolsonarist Shock Troops". The Rio Times. Archived from the original on October 27, 2020. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
7. Quan, Douglas (May 24, 2017). "Anonymous Twitter group confronts companies whose ads appear on Rebel Media website". National Post. Archived from the original on May 5, 2024. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
8. Plottu, Pierre (December 2, 2019). "Après CNews, Valeurs actuelles est la nouvelle cible des Sleeping Giants" [After CNews, Current Values is the new target of Sleeping Giants]. Slate (in French). Archived from the original on November 11, 2022. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
9. Wirminghaus, Niklas (February 27, 2017). "Keine Werbung auf Breitbart – Initiative "Sleeping Giants" kommt nach Deutschland" [No advertising on Breitbart – "Sleeping Giants" initiative comes to Germany]. Gründerszene Magazin (in German). Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved November 28, 2020.
10. Coffee, Patrick (July 17, 2018). "The Daily Caller Names Founder of Sleeping Giants, Which Organized Breitbart Advertiser Boycotts". Adweek. Archived from the original on September 15, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
11. Sapna Maheshwari. "Revealed: The People Behind an Anti-Breitbart Twitter Account". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 31, 2020. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
12. Swant, Marty. "As Civil Rights Groups Ask Marketers To Boycott Facebook, Outdoor Brands Pause Spending". Forbes. Archived from the original on July 10, 2020. Retrieved July 10, 2020.
13. Crowley, James (November 5, 2019). "PayPal to cut off donations to right-wing YouTuber Stefan Molyneux following social media divestment campaign". Newsweek. Archived from the original on January 3, 2021. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
14. Jammi, Nandini (July 9, 2020). "I'm leaving Sleeping Giants, but not because I want to". Medium. Archived from the original on July 9, 2020. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
15. Nash, Charlie (July 10, 2020). "Sleeping Giants Apologizes to Woman of Color Co-Founder 'Gaslighted' Out of Org". Mediaite. Archived from the original on November 22, 2020. Retrieved November 24, 2020.
16. Quittner, Jeremy (February 9, 2017). "Shopify Won't Remove Breitbart's Online Shop, Claiming Free Speech". Fortune.com. Archived from the original on September 11, 2018. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
17. Guaglione, Sara (February 3, 2017). "Various Companies, Canadian Government Pull Ads From 'Breitbart News'". MediaPost. Archived from the original on December 16, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
18. Perlberg, Steven (December 1, 2016). "Breitbart Takes Aim at Kellogg in Ad Dispute". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on December 9, 2018. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
19. Nwanevu, Osita (December 14, 2016). ""Sleeping Giants" Is Borrowing Gamergate's Tactics to Attack Breitbart". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Archived from the original on October 27, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
20. Woolf, Nicky (November 30, 2016). "Breitbart declares war on Kellogg's after cereal brand pulls advertising from site". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on January 18, 2021. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
21. Pierson, David (April 21, 2017). "How a social media campaign helped drive Bill O'Reilly out of Fox News". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on November 21, 2018. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
22. Gupta, Anika (2020). How to Handle a Crowd. Tiller Press. p. 98. ISBN 978-1-9821-3231-6.
23. Tencer, Daniel (August 17, 2017). "Rebel Media Has Lost 300 Advertisers In Past 3 Months: Group". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on August 12, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
24. Jeanticou, Romain (August 30, 2017). "Boulevard Voltaire, le site fondé par Robert Ménard, lâché par ses annonceurs" [Boulevard Voltaire, the site founded by Robert Ménard, dropped by its advertisers] (in French). Archived from the original on October 21, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
25. Zhou, Naaman (August 7, 2018). "American Express pulls advertising from Sky News after far-right extremist interview". The Guardian. Archived from the original on November 12, 2022. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
26. Tsavkko, Raphael; Garcia (June 19, 2020). "Anonymous Twitter accounts in Brazil are pressuring advertisers to drop conservative media campaigns". Business Insider. Archived from the original on September 15, 2020. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
27. Alves, Soraia (May 21, 2020). "Sleeping Giants Brasil: iniciativa faz empresas retirarem anúncios de sites com fake news" [Sleeping Giants Brasil: initiative makes companies remove ads from sites with fake news]. B9 (in Brazilian Portuguese). Archived from the original on May 5, 2024. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
28. Biller, David (December 13, 2020). "Swift backlash for Brazil students targeting misinformation". AP News. Associated Press. Archived from the original on December 13, 2020. Retrieved December 14, 2020.
29. Fogel, Benjamin (August 7, 2020). "PayPal blocks Olavo de Carvalho in latest blow for far-right ideologue". The Brazilian Report. Archived from the original on September 16, 2020. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
30. McCoy, Terrence. "He's the Rush Limbaugh of Brazil. He has Bolsonaro's ear. And he lives in rural Virginia". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on October 9, 2020. Retrieved October 5, 2020.
31. Teitelbaum, Benjamin (October 8, 2020). "The rise of the traditionalists: how a mystical doctrine is reshaping the right". New Statesman. Archived from the original on October 11, 2020. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
32. John Fowler, Mayhill. "Sleeping Giants Movement Undermines Jair Bolsonaro's Guru's Disinformation Web". Off The Bus. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020.

Further reading

• Gupta, Anika (2020). "Chapter 4 - Bringing the Revolution: Sleeping Giants and the Battle over Online Advertising". How to Handle a Crowd. Tiller Press. pp. 86–105. ISBN 978-1-9821-3231-6.