Sleeping Giants
Sleeping Giants Brazil is the Brazilian branch of the social media activism organisation Sleeping Giants, which was founded in the U.S. in 2016. The main goal of Sleeping Giants is to pressure companies into removing advertisements from conservative news outlets by calling out malpractices such as misinformation and hate speech.
Sleeping Giants Brazil was founded in 2020 and has since become an important player in the defence of democracy and in creating a healthier digital environment in Brazil, a country that has been suffering from increasing backlash against its democratic institutions.
In its own words, Sleeping Giants Brazil “follows the money”. By monitoring the national social media landscape, the organisation calls out brands whose ads are published on websites that feature hate speech and disinformation. By inviting the brands to remove their ads, Sleeping Giants Brazil has prevented 71.6 million Brazilian real (approx. 13.4 million EUR; 2022) from being earned by websites that spread false information online.
Sleeping Giants works on campaigns that usually have specific media outlets as their prime target for demonetisation. Their work received global attention after the Brazilian presidential election in December 2022, when Sleeping Giants publicly launched their “Demonetise Jovem Pan” campaign. The aim was to suspend ad funding of Jovem Pan, a key player in the Brazilian far-right media ecosystem, to prevent coup attempts like the U.S. Capitol riots on January 6, 2021, instigated and propelled by right-wing media outlets. Shortly before, Google had already decided to suspend funding for Jovem Pan’s channels. The campaign turned out to be extremely successful, with ad revenue losses for Jovem Pan amounting to 837,000 Brazilian real (approx. 160,000 EUR) every single month.
Sleeping Giants Brazil is a prime example of how to successfully break the lucrative business model of disinformation by cutting off the cash flow to channels that spread it.
As for its business model, Sleeping Giants Brazil relies on donations as well as subscriptions supported by their community.
Organisation website: Sleeping Giants Brasil
