Matt Rivitz

Matt Rivitz is the founder of Sleeping Giants, a crowd-sourced anti-bigotry and corporate responsibility campaign that he started on Twitter as a reaction to the intense racism, sexism and xenophobia found on Breitbart News on the heels of the of the 2016 Presidential Election. The campaign has exploded, with 300,000 followers across Twitter and Facebook and Sleeping Giants chapters in 11 other countries and territories including the EU, France, Canada and Australia, each fighting against bigoted media sources in their own countries. A working copywriter in advertising, Matt initially started Sleeping Giants to shed light on the practice of opaque Internet advertising practices that allowed even the most virulently racist websites to monetize, making bigotry a profitable enterprise. Over the next two years, though, the campaign’s purpose expanded well beyond ad tech. Besides being responsible for now over 4,200 advertisers deciding to leave Breitbart News, Sleeping Giants has also been partially or fully responsible for over 25 advertisers leaving Bill O’Reilly’s previous show on Fox News after revelations of $32 million in sexual harassment allegations; billionaire Breitbart funder Robert Mercer stepping down from his role as co-CEO of Renaissance Technologies after alerting institutions invested with his company about his role in pushing white nationalism; the removal of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones across nearly every major social platform from YouTube to Twitter to Facebook; and the cutting off of funding for many Neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups through payment platforms like PayPal and Stripe. Anonymous until July 17, 2018, Matt’s identity was exposed without his permission by Tucker Carlson- owned website The Daily Caller, resulting in a coordinated harassment campaign by white supremacists on social media, resulting in death threats against his children and wife. Recently, he was informed of a potential lawsuit against him by Breitbart News. Matt continues to lead Sleeping Giants as it moves into working more directly with marketers to help them navigate an evermore complicated media and social media ecosystem.