Skip to main content

Why Facebook Co-Founder Dustin Moskovitz is donating $20 million to help Hillary Clinton

dustin moskovitz 20 million donation screen shot 2016 09 10 at 12 35 27 pm
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Facebook may not be trying to influence what decision you make at the polls come November, but that doesn’t mean its founders are staying as neutral. Far from it, in fact. On Friday, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz wrote a Medium blog post entitled “Compelled to Act,” in which he explained the impetus behind his family’s decision to donate $20 million to help Democrats in the 2016 election.

Noting that this is the first time that he and his wife Cari will be donating to a political campaign, Moskovitz noted, “This cycle is different.”

“The polarization in America today has yielded a race that is about much more than policies and ideas,” he continued. “It has become a referendum on who we want to be — as individuals, as a nation and as a society.”

As such, the billionaire is doing his part to ensure that Donald Trump and his campaign “built on fear and hostility” do not make it to the White House. His $2o million donation will be split among a number of organizations: the Hillary Victory Fund, the DSCC, the DCCC, the League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund, and For Our Future PAC are included. Of these, the LCV Victory Fund and For Our Future PAC will receive the largest contributions of $5 million each.

The decision to make this magnitude of a donation was not easy, the co-founder wrote, “particularly because we have reservations about anyone using large amounts of money to influence elections.” However, it seems as though desperate times call for desperate measures.

“We hope these efforts make it a little more likely that Secretary Clinton is able to pursue the agenda she’s outlined, and serve as a signal to the Republican Party that by running this kind of campaign  —  one built on fear and hostility  —  and supporting this kind of candidate, they compel people to act in response,” Moskovitz concluded. “We are not the only ones being activated so strongly during this election.”

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
Bluesky barrels toward 1 million new sign-ups in a day
Bluesky social media app logo.

Social media app Bluesky has picked nearly a million new users just a day after exiting its invitation-only beta and opening to everyone.

In a post on its main rival -- X (formerly Twitter) -- Bluesky shared a chart showing a sudden boost in usage on the app, which can now be downloaded for free for iPhone and Android devices.

Read more
How to make a GIF from a YouTube video
woman sitting and using laptop

Sometimes, whether you're chatting with friends or posting on social media, words just aren't enough -- you need a GIF to fully convey your feelings. If there's a moment from a YouTube video that you want to snip into a GIF, the good news is that you don't need complex software to so it. There are now a bunch of ways to make a GIF from a YouTube video right in your browser.

If you want to use desktop software like Photoshop to make a GIF, then you'll need to download the YouTube video first before you can start making a GIF. However, if you don't want to go through that bother then there are several ways you can make a GIF right in your browser, without the need to download anything. That's ideal if you're working with a low-specced laptop or on a phone, as all the processing to make the GIF is done in the cloud rather than on your machine. With these options you can make quick and fun GIFs from YouTube videos in just a few minutes.
Use GIFs.com for great customization
Step 1: Find the YouTube video that you want to turn into a GIF (perhaps a NASA archive?) and copy its URL.

Read more
I paid Meta to ‘verify’ me — here’s what actually happened
An Instagram profile on an iPhone.

In the fall of 2023 I decided to do a little experiment in the height of the “blue check” hysteria. Twitter had shifted from verifying accounts based (more or less) on merit or importance and instead would let users pay for a blue checkmark. That obviously went (and still goes) badly. Meanwhile, Meta opened its own verification service earlier in the year, called Meta Verified.

Mostly aimed at “creators,” Meta Verified costs $15 a month and helps you “establish your account authenticity and help[s] your community know it’s the real us with a verified badge." It also gives you “proactive account protection” to help fight impersonation by (in part) requiring you to use two-factor authentication. You’ll also get direct account support “from a real person,” and exclusive features like stickers and stars.

Read more