Thankful for You, and the Progress We've Made

Many of us aren’t able to be with the friends and relatives we ordinarily would have gathered with on this day. And some of us have lost loved ones this year.

We feel confident in saying that each and every one of us could use a day to rest and connect. And as we send our fervent wish that you get a respite this week, we want you to know that, despite the challenges and uncertainties of this past year, you have given us a lot to feel grateful for.

Our fight for access to truthful information and against hate and disinformation has seen significant successes this year. Without our supporters, none of this would have been possible — and we are thankful for you.

Here is some of what we achieved together in the face of the historic challenges of 2020:

• Together, we fought tooth and nail against hate, disinformation and voter suppression in Election 2020 in the courts, on social media, across broadcast media and more.
• Social-media platforms, most notably Twitter, began flagging and restricting Donald Trump’s racist and deceitful posts.
• Prominent white supremacists were banned on social media, including Richard Spencer on YouTube, Katie Hopkins on Twitter and David Duke on both platforms.
• Reddit banned hateful subreddits and posted new rules to fight hate — pulled directly from policies developed with our Change the Terms partners.
• 1,000+ major companies, from Coca-Cola to Ford to Target, took a stand against white supremacy on Facebook, joining our July ad boycott and hitting Mark Zuckerberg where it hurts: his ad revenue.

And that's just our progress in the fight against hate and disinformation. This year, we also worked to shape and pass landmark broadband legislation in the House, defend Net Neutrality, challenge the most powerful media and tech companies, stop the expansion of surveillance powers, reimagine journalism's future and make the case for media reparations.

We know we still have a lot of hard work ahead to build a truly just media and ensure everyone has access to essential, truthful information. But if we can keep joining together to generate successes like these, we know that we will keep driving progress regardless of what challenges we face.

We hope this reminder of what we’ve achieved together this past year is a boost to your spirits — and we hope you will share it with family and friends who may need help seeing just how much progress we’ve made.

All of us here at Free Press could not be more proud of what we’ve accomplished — and we’re so thankful for every single supporter like you who helped us get here.