The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into 11 out of 26 organizations to prevent Elon Musk from taking control of Twitter, according to data shared with Breitbart by Freedom Online. Among the 11 organizations funded by Gates, reports led initiatives against Musk's acquisition of Twitter by pressuring advertisers to boycott the platform. The New Venture Fund, a "dark money" organization, received the largest single-year commitment from the foundation in over five years in 2020. This group finances the Media Justice Center, the Media Democracy Fund, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, and Accountability Tech, all of which signed the open letter supporting the advertising boycott. Since 2008, they have received approximately 102 separate cash grants from the Gates Foundation totaling $457 million, according to the foundation's financial disclosures. Other signatories included groups like the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which are affiliated with the New Venture Fund.
The Tides Foundation, another dark money group strongly supported by Gates Foundation funds, finances five other signers: Free Press, Indivisible, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Media Matters, and the Black Lives Matter Global Network, while Gates-supported community partners also fund the signatories.
Gates and Musk have recently clashed publicly, with the Microsoft founder revealing that he still holds a $500 million short position against Musk's electric vehicle company, Tesla, even as Gates invited Musk to participate in his climate-related charitable efforts. Notably, the SpaceX founder took to Twitter to express his grievances, likening an image of Gates to the "pregnant man" emoji and describing the pictures as a "boner killer."
The software mogul, who has become a pandemic expert, was a key proponent of censorship during the COVID-19 pandemic, insisting that vaccine skeptics should be barred from freely exchanging ideas on social media platforms.
Last month, the 26 organizations signed an open letter urging advertisers to boycott Twitter if Musk made any efforts to ease the strict speech controls the platform had adopted in recent years. They claimed that Musk's takeover of Twitter would increase the toxicity of our information system and pose a direct threat to public safety, particularly among the already vulnerable and marginalized individuals.
The letter stated that advertisers continuing to work with the platform risked "associating with a platform that amplifies hate, extremism, health misinformation, and conspiracy theories." It is noted that the board approved Musk's $44 billion offer to buy Twitter earlier this month, but the acquisition process has been delayed as the billionaire called on Twitter to prove that "fake accounts actually represent less than 5% of users." The platform made this claim last month in a quarterly financial report based on a sample audit but acknowledged that the figure had not been independently verified and that the real numbers could be higher.
