Online Stasi of the 21st century gunning for radio stars, big companies
Could social media get more sinister? Janet Albrechtsen, The Weekend Australian, Saturday:
They call themselves Sleeping Giants. But they are not giants. And they don’t sleep. They are Twitter trolls who trawl sections of the media to clobber views they hate … Sleeping Giants despise people with different views … They want people censored at least, but preferably sacked. They want to neuter the media platforms who host people with different views. And Sleeping Giants do it anonymously. They are the online Stasi for the 21st century.
Andrew Bolt has an example, Herald Sun, November 3:
The media by and large relied on that one out-of-context quote, provided by a small far-left activist group, Sleeping Giants, which is dedicated to getting Sky News banned or boycotted by advertisers.
Even powerful radio jocks are copping it. Peter FitzSimons, Sun-Herald, yesterday:
Alan Jones’s contract is up … next year, and current 2GB management does not want to renew it. There are a variety of reasons, but first and foremost is that Jones has … gone from being the biggest asset the station possesses — and the greatest generator of profits — to being a massive liability … The second factor is that with the advent of social justice warriors such as Sleeping Giants pursuing Jones’s sponsors online over being associated with his brand … many of those sponsors are not just running from Jones’s show, but all of 2GB.
The Sydney Morning Herald, November 12:
Senior media industry sources close to the (Nine-Fairfax) merger have argued … that in this era of heightened online scrutiny, and … pressure groups like Sleeping Giants, Jones’s approach is becoming problematic.
Brad Norington, The Australian, October 29:
A secretive online activist group that incites supporters to boycott brand-name advertisers in the name of “stopping hate speech” could be vulnerable to court action by mainstream media … Commercial law experts said yesterday the tactic used by Sleeping Giants Oz of intimidating large companies into withdrawing ads from media outlets it disliked by flooding Twitter with calls for consumers to join its blacklist had opened the door to possible legal claims for harm to trade or business.
Norington continues:
Sleeping Giants Oz had stirred negative reaction among its online supporters by adding Labor to its blacklist of advertisers on Sky News … Sky News has received the brunt of attacks from the activist group in recent months following an interview with Australian United Patriots Front founder Blair Cottrell — for which the network later apologised. Big name brands on the Sleeping Giants Oz blacklist have included Coles, Telstra, Fujitsu, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Samsung and KFC.
Herdon Gazette, November 13:
Sleeping Giants, which made a name for itself by trying to demonise Breitbart News by orchestrating campaigns of harassment against advertisers, has for the last two years repeatedly insisted that their efforts are not political.
The Los Angeles Times, April 21 last year:
Sleeping Giants … tactic isn’t new: Activist video gamers persuaded Intel and Mercedes-Benz to pull ads from sites … But it says its efforts have proven successful before, helping pressure hundreds of advertisers to flee Breitbart News.
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