Harnessing Social Media: Matt Rivitz of Sleeping Giants

Sleeping Giants

Matt Rivitz is the co-founder of Sleeping Giants, which is best known for its social media campaign to persuade companies to remove advertisements from outlets that publish far-right propaganda and promote white supremacist views. Rivitz co-founded Sleeping Giants shortly after the 2016 Presidential election. I was eager to talk to Mr. Rivitz and ask him more questions about his career and the work he's been doing as part of Sleeping Giants. 


How did you come up with the idea for Sleeping Giants?

After the 2016 election, I became acutely aware of the growing problem of hate both online and off. One of the people who seemed to be pushing these ideas was Steve Bannon, who was Donald Trump's campaign manager and also the President of Breitbart News. When I looked at Breitbart for the first time, I was totally disgusted with a lot of the articles that were on the site like, "Hoist it High and Proud: The Confederate Flag Proclaims a Glorious Heritage." What was even more shocking was that it was supported by advertising. As someone who has been in advertising for 25 years, I had to know if these brands supported this material, so I opened an anonymous Twitter account, took some screenshots of some ads next to these articles and sent them directly to their corporate Twitter handles. I heard back from the first company within a few hours and I knew I was on to something big.


What did you anticipate the outcome would be? How has your actual experience been different than expected? Any surprises or learnings? 

I honestly had no idea what would happen, but I did know that it was a big story. The idea that big companies were inadvertently supporting hate and bigotry seemed significant. I didn't know what it would become, if anything, so it has been a massive surprise that it has become a big international movement. It has been enormously stressful, but also incredibly gratifying. There wasn't a plan coming into it and, to be honest, I have no idea what it will be from day to day, so whatever happens with it is always a big surprise.


Have you always been an activist? If so, can you describe what form your activism has taken in the past?

No, I haven't been. But both of my parents are in nonprofit, so I was raised with a healthy dose of social justice and civic duty. As a guy in his mid-40s, I had been looking for something to make a difference, so this came along at the right time.


Think back to when you were my age (15). What did you want to be when you grew up? 

I was pretty lost when I was 15. I certainly didn't have the drive to do a blog like you're doing! I just was making my way through high school without a ton of purpose. I knew I loved advertising, writing, and communications,  but that was it. I thought I'd be in advertising, but I didn't really know what that meant yet.


What would your 15-year-old self think of what you are doing today?

I think he'd be pretty surprised and excited if he was going to get excited by anything. I think some teenagers set out to do something that's going to make some kind of difference, but honestly, I don't think that was me at the time. He probably would be pretty blown away that the kid who didn't get the best grades and wasn't the most engaged student would somehow affect some kind of change in the world.


If you could travel back in time, what advice would you give your 15-year-old self? Is that the same advice you’d give to me today?

I'd say just to stay interested and curious about as many things as possible. So many kids now are on a track and they're loaded down with responsibility to their parents, their school and their expectations and I think that crushes your ability to stay interested in a variety of things. It took me until I was 44 years old to do something that I feel is significant. It wouldn't have happened if I was simply plowing along at my job and just doing that all day. If I could give you any advice, it would be to find something you love to do, but remain open to anything else that comes your way because you really never know what will happen with it.