{"id":179884,"date":"2017-09-26T19:48:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T00:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2017\/09\/26\/more-of-this-7\/"},"modified":"2017-09-26T19:48:00","modified_gmt":"2017-09-27T00:48:00","slug":"more-of-this-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2017\/09\/26\/more-of-this-7\/","title":{"rendered":"More of This"},"content":{"rendered":"
A group of people on Twitter known as “Sleeping Giants” has taken to visiting Breitbart, taking screenshots showing the ads and then naming and shaming the advertisers<\/a>:<\/div>\n

Hardly anyone paid attention last November when a strangely named Twitter account, Sleeping Giants<\/a>, sent its first tweet into the digisphere. \u201cAre you aware that you\u2019re advertising on Breitbart, the alt-right\u2019s biggest champion, today?\u201d read the tweet<\/a>, aimed at a consumer lending outfit called Social Finance<\/a>. \u201cAre you supporting them publicly?\u201d <\/span>

<\/span>Within 30 minutes, Social Finance replied, tweeting that it would stop running ads on Breitbart.<\/span>

<\/span>It was, it turns out, the start of an odd, and oddly effective, social media campaign against Breitbart<\/a>, the influential conservative news site headed by Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump\u2019s former campaign chairman and ex-chief White House strategist.<\/span>

<\/span>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>

<\/span>Sleeping Giants\u2019 basic approach is to make Breitbart\u2019s advertisers aware that they are, in fact, Breitbart advertisers. Many apparently don\u2019t know this, given that Web ads are often bought through third-party brokers, such as Google and Facebook. The brokers then distribute them to a network of websites according to algorithms that seek a specific target audience (say, young men) or a set number of impressions.<\/span>

<\/span>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>

<\/span>So when an ad appears on Breitbart, Sleeping Giants or one of its 109,000 Twitter followers and 35,000 Facebook followers <\/a>flag the advertiser, often accompanied by an image of the sponsors\u2019 ad next to a Breitbart story.<\/span>

<\/span>The other day, for example, a Sleeping Giants follower tweeted at Country Inns<\/a>, informing the hotel chain that it was advertising on \u201cthe racist Breitbart site.\u201d Within a day, the company tweeted back<\/a>: \u201cThank you for your concern. .\u2009.\u2009. We have added Breitbart to our blacklist of ads.\u201d<\/span>

<\/span>This apparently happens a lot. Sleeping Giants\u2019 database lists nearly 2,900 companies <\/a>that <\/a>have declared Breitbart off limits since November \u2014 an astonishing figure, though one hard to confirm because some ad buys recur. Nevertheless, it\u2019s not an implausible number. During one 24-hour period, advertisers such as the air-conditioning manufacturer Rheem<\/a>, transport operator Caltrain<\/a>, Sutter Health Plus <\/a>and Rose Medical Center <\/a>of Denver all publicly acknowledged that they had blacklisted Breitbart in response to a Sleeping Giants tweet.<\/span>

<\/span>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>

<\/span>The group decided to single out Breitbart almost by happenstance. \u201cIt really happened as a reaction to Steve Bannon\u2019s rise,\u201d the spokesman says. \u201cWe weren\u2019t familiar with Breitbart at the time and were obviously pretty shocked at the articles. .\u2009.\u2009. To be honest, we weren\u2019t familiar with [other conservative] sites,\u201d so those weren\u2019t even considered, he says. <\/span>

<\/span>The group has raised about $1,500 from T-shirt sales and about $7,000 from an online fundraiser<\/a>, but it otherwise operates with little overhead, he notes. \u201cIf I had a nickel for every claim that we\u2019re being funded by [liberal billionaire activist] George Soros, I\u2019d be well off. It\u2019s crazy. There\u2019s not much need for funding. Tweeting is free.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Two points here:<\/p>\n