Posted on November 12, 2024
On endangered species: CREDO Mobile makes a difference
Earlier this year, we sent a donation to the Center for Biological Diversity, which fights to secure a future for the species, great and small, that are now on the brink of extinction.
There has never been a time in human history when so many animals and plants were disappearing so fast. Left unchecked, the wildlife extinction crisis could take a million species in the coming years. It’s gut-wrenching to think of a world without them.
But the Center is working to stop the crisis by fighting for greater protections of vulnerable species and the places they call home. As a direct result of advocacy by the Climate Forests Campaign, in which the Center plays a lead role, the Biden administration has proposed the National Old-Growth Amendment to protect remaining old-growth forests and expand old growth across all 128 national forests.
In January, the Center joined other conservation groups to sue the Forest Service over its plan to log a sensitive area in North Carolina’s Nantahala National Forest—and in June the Forest Service scrapped the plan. After another lawsuit by the Center and partners, the Forest Service abandoned its plan to log in Utah’s Ashley National Forest, saving vital habitat for bighorn sheep, deer, elk, bears and raptors.
Since our donation, the Center has expanded its efforts. It’s pressing for stronger federal protections of old-growth forests, suing to preserve the Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests, and defending Roadless Rule protections in the Tongass National Forest.
The Center is also taking important steps to compel a phaseout of offshore drilling and prevent the reopening of old oil and gas infrastructure in California. They are petitioning to plug old offshore oil wells in federal waters and suing over unlawful offshore oil lease extensions and outdated drilling plans off California’s coast.
The Center for Biological Diversity was able to do all these things because our customers do one thing: use our service. When they do, they raise much-needed donations for progressive nonprofit groups like the Center. If you’re a CREDO Mobile member, thank you. If you’re not, please join us now and make a difference in the world—just by using your phone.
Posted on November 12, 2024
Donations spotlight: Help Other 98% hold the line against misinformation, one meme at a time
Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This November, the Other 98% is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will be vital to the nonprofit as it uses meme warfare and savvy boots-on-the-ground actions to challenge the billionaires and corporations that have hijacked our democracy and fights like hell for an America that works for the other 98% of us.
Read this important blog post about the Other 98%, then visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send much-needed grant money to the group to assist its efforts—and the efforts of our other outstanding November grantees.
The Other 98% is a netroots powerhouse that specializes in winning the battle of the story. Even if you haven’t seen our name on Facebook or other social media platforms, you’ve probably come across our memes. From the Koch brothers to Martin Shkreli to Project 2025, Other98 has been spotlighting shadowy villains and elevating the people who heroically stand in their way since 2010. Today, we reach anywhere from 2 million to 10 million people every single day with compelling narratives designed to educate and mobilize support for solutions to the most critical issues of our time.
Our organization was founded, in part, as a response to our serious concern about the Tea Party: a faux populist, faux grassroots “movement” that coopted the language and symbols of working-class activism and paired it with racist, misogynist dog whistles and outright lies designed to undermine the genuine grassroots populist movement springing up in the wake of the 2008 recession and subsequent bailout of big banks.
We were worried that this group’s promotion of blatant doublespeak, condensed into nastily simple memes (recall that the racist “birther” meme was popularized by none other than Donald Trump), would pose an existential threat to our democracy.
And we were right. Nearly 15 years later, lies and deception have been fully embraced as a legitimate political strategy by regressive politicians and their billionaire backers. “Lock her up,” “Build the wall,” “They’re eating the cats and dogs”—the Trump era has been defined by poisonous, dangerous memes that perpetuate and entrench fear, apathy, cruelty and civic disengagement.
Today, we’re witnessing a snowballing feedback loop of distrust in our democratic institutions, leading to political demoralization and low civic engagement. Low engagement creates disappointing results, which further erodes trust. When even progressive lawmakers fail to deliver on a whole range of campaign promises they made to voters, it creates the impression that there is no one fighting for regular people, which disincentives civic engagement even further. But if voters check out and stop making cohesive, tangible demands, the cycle will only continue.
Not too proud to meme
We wish we hadn’t been right about what the Tea Party symbolized but we are heartened by the fact that we were right about something else too: the best weapon against a bad meme is a good one. As the New York Times pointed out in 2018, “If the goal is to build a movement that is effective in opposing attacks on democratic ideals and a free press, the left can’t be too proud to meme.”
Other98 overpowers and drowns out toxic memes by elevating progressive ideas to “everybody knows” status. By this we mean narratives so powerful and prevalent that they become simple common knowledge. “Everybody knows” that airplane food is bad and “everybody knows” that there is too much money in politics. We know the American people—despite what our elected officials might have us believe—are largely in support of, for example, commonsense gun control laws, investing in renewable energy and making the 1% pay their fair share of taxes. Our job is to highlight the solutions to these issues in a way that resonates deeply enough for people to share them with their friends and family. When these messages are validated through networks of trust, people take ownership of them as their own thoughts and feelings, and change becomes not only possible but inevitable.
Connecting with millions of voters
Our organization is unique in that we’re both wildly viral on social media and also deeply rooted in grassroots organizing spaces. Other98 team members worked on the ground of some of the biggest movement moments of the past decade, from Occupy Wall Street to Standing Rock to the protests against Trump’s Muslim ban, and we’re extremely proud of the role we played in bringing global attention to those stories and so many more.
We’re also very proud of the work we did in the leadup to this election. Our top-15 Project 2025 posts have reached over 10 million people, all without paid promotion of any kind. This means that the millions of voters who are encountering these memes are connecting with them enough to feel compelled to share them in turn.
We are writing this post in mid-October. The election may be over by the time you see it. Two very different roads lay ahead of us. But one fact will remain no matter who wins: we have to find a solution to this crisis of public trust. It’s one thing to disagree on solutions to a problem but it’s a whole other thing to disagree about the nature of reality itself. Work like ours helps stem the tide of disinformation and build public consensus for progressive solutions to the biggest challenges facing our planet, from climate chaos to white nationalism. This work is difficult to explain and even harder to fund, so we are deeply grateful to the CREDO Mobile team and its community for its generous support. Thank you!
To learn more, please visit Other98.com.
Posted on November 8, 2024
Donations spotlight: Help Fight for the Future expand the internet’s transformative power for good
Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This November, Fight for the Future is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will be vital to the nonprofit as it works to ensure that the internet continues to hold freedom of expression and creativity at its core.
Read this important blog post about Fight for the Future, then visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send much-needed grant money to the group to assist its efforts—and the efforts of our other outstanding November grantees.
Founded in 2011, Fight for the Future Education Fund (Fight) is a queer women-led team of strategists, activists and technologists who have been behind the largest online protests in history. Our mission is to ensure a just internet and promote technology as a force for empowerment, not exploitation.
Our high-visibility campaigns focus on technologies and policies that disproportionately impact and harm Black, Brown and Indigenous people and communities, immigrants, LGBTQ+ people and others who face systemic oppression.
We achieve victories previously thought impossible through a unique tactical approach that integrates technology, coalition-building, advocacy and bold messaging to mobilize activism at a mass scale. In the past year alone, our victories have included: organizing hundreds of prominent musicians to boycott venues that use facial-recognition technology and fighting its discriminatory use in schools and sports arenas like MSG and Citi Field; overcoming an industry lobbying blitz to successfully get strong net neutrality protections restored; and, in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned, successfully pressuring one of the world’s largest tech companies to finally encrypt user’s private messages.
But the threats continue to grow. As Fight Director Evan Greer recently wrote in a call to action, “The stakes couldn’t be higher. Big Tech has colonized much of what we used to call the internet, creating a near monopoly on channels for speech and employing a surveillance-driven business model that’s wreaking havoc on democracy, eviscerating privacy and civil rights, and endangering the lives of the most vulnerable.”
There is so much work to be done. But we’re up to it. With continued advocacy and activism, we’re leading the charge to protect the digital freedoms that make a just and equitable society possible. Here’s a look at some of the most critical issues Fight is tackling now.
Stopping the spread of biometric surveillance technology
Facial recognition and other biometric surveillance technologies—like palm scanning and emotional AI—are becoming increasingly pervasive and intrusive, infringing on civil liberties and putting people in danger. This surveillance is basically impossible to opt of, puts our highly sensitive biometric data at risk of abuse by hackers and other bad actors, has led to a number of discriminatory and wrongful arrests—traumatic events that can forever change the course of someone’s life—and imperils our democracy with its chilling effect on privacy and the freedom of movement, expression and dissent.
As a leader in the fight against facial-recognition technology, we have mobilized a coalition of over 40 racial justice, LGBTQ+ and human rights organizations to push for a federal ban and dealt major blows to the spread of facial recognition. Our campaigns have successfully kept facial recognition off of 60 college campuses, halted its use at major music festivals and rallied over 100 artists and 30 venues to reject it. Our live protests against its discriminatory and harmful use at MSG and other sports and music arenas, including most recently at New York’s Citi Field, have been covered nationally. As one of the first organizations in the U.S. to start campaigning against the use of facial recognition in retail stores, we were thrilled to recently add to our scorecard a win against Rite Aid, the result of an FTC enforcement action that cracked down on Rite Aid’s discriminatory surveillance. We are also working to ensure that the Biden administration addresses and prioritizes the AI harms associated with facial recognition, particularly in schools, public housing, healthcare and law enforcement.
Each rejection of this technology is an immediate win for everyone’s security, safety and autonomy, especially for individuals and communities who have long faced systemic discrimination. But there is an urgent need for more advocacy to stop the spread of facial recognition. We’ll keep amplifying the alarm about its dangers, launch large-scale campaigns that empower thousands to send mass comments to federal agencies and pressure companies to reject facial recognition and other biometric surveillance tech until we get an outright ban that protects us all.
Expanding privacy: Reproductive justice and the fight for private messaging
In an era of increasing surveillance, the fight to protect personal privacy is all the more urgent. And with the onslaught of anti-abortion and anti-trans bills, the need for secure, private communication is more critical than ever. Without end-to-end encryption, platforms can access private messages, leaving many individuals—particularly those crossing state lines for abortion or gender-affirming care—exposed to law enforcement, hackers and even nosy employees.
Our campaign to make private messaging safe was launched immediately after Roe was overturned and focuses on the essential role of default end-to-end encryption in safeguarding marginalized communities, including gender-affirming care funds, abortion seekers, trans activists, sex workers, immigrants, racial justice activists, workers who are organizing, journalists and human rights defenders. We built out a 70-plus intersectional coalition to drive tech accountability, including racial justice, LGBTQ+, climate and reproductive justice organizations and we have relentlessly pressured Meta, Slack, Discord, Apple, Google and others to adopt privacy preserving policies.
We’ve now made huge gains in this fight. This year, Meta officially launched default end-to-end encryption for Messenger, and Instagram, Google, Apple and Discord have expanded its use. Our efforts have been vital in safeguarding the privacy and security of millions of at-risk individuals and we’ll continue to step up pressure on all messaging platforms. We’ve also expanded the campaign to hold Big Tech accountable for surveillance and censorship practices that threaten bodily autonomy and we’re pushing rideshare companies to ensure location-privacy practices and policies that protect those seeking care across state borders.
Stopping data brokers and restoring personal privacy: Getting a national opt-out registry
Data brokers are another insidious threat to personal privacy. Companies you have likely never heard of, like Acxiom and RELX, have a staggering reach into the most private corners of our lives, collecting and selling detailed information on over two-thirds of U.S. residents, tracking our daily movements, relationships, transactions and activities.
This massive data trove enables wide-scale surveillance and puts vulnerable communities, including those fleeing domestic violence, social justice advocates, abortion seekers and others, at particular risk. The sale of personal data collected not only fuels surveillance but also exposes individuals to hacking, doxing, AI scams and discrimination in housing, employment, banking and other areas.
To stop data brokers in their tracks, Fight for the Future has built a coalition of 30-plus organizations to push the Federal Trade Commission to crack down on corporate data-collection practices and abuse. Central to our campaign is getting the FTC to create a national opt-out registry, which would limit data exposure, mitigate the surveillance of vulnerable individuals, restore personal privacy and security, and help protect everyone from the harms of nonconsensual data collection and sale.
The fight for internet justice: Defending net neutrality
High-speed internet enables people across society to access education, employment, healthcare, entertainment, banking, commerce and community, and is critical to everyone’s ability to participate fully in civic and cultural life.
Yet millions of people in the U.S. still lack reliable, affordable internet access. For over a decade, Fight for the Future has been at the forefront of the battle for broadband access and net neutrality, which ensures that internet service providers cannot prioritize certain content, such as that of Big Tech like Amazon or Meta, or throttle access to others.
In 2015, Fight built the tech and led the messaging that made net neutrality a household word and clinched the victory that established net neutrality protections. When those protections were repealed in 2017, we led the charge that helped generate the passage of the Save the Internet Act in the House. And, in 2024, after more than a year of pushing hard for a fully staffed Federal Communications Commission, we won back net neutrality.
How did we do it? We relaunched our campaign hub Battle for the Net, built a coalition of over 140 signers, mobilized a wide range of supporters, from individuals and businesses to veterans and first responders, to generate tens of thousands of comments and published an open letter signed by over 275+ influential artists, including Tom Morello, Amanda Palmer and Cory Doctorow, that emphasized the importance of strong Title II net neutrality protections for their livelihoods.
But the battle is far from over. Big Tech continues to push for monopolistic control of the internet, threatening to send us back to a web of inequity and walled access. And Supreme Court rulings like the recent reversal of the Chevron doctrine mean net neutrality and hundreds of other agency rulings could be struck down by the courts.
Fight remains steadfast in our efforts. We’ll keep defending net neutrality and working for broadband affordability and justice to ensure that the essential human right to connect is protected.
To learn more, go to FightForTheFuture.org.
Posted on November 7, 2024
Conscious consuming for the holidays: Try these alternatives to Amazon
Amazon. If you’re like us, you’ve got feelings. On the one hand, it’s so convenient. A few clicks and whatever you want is at your door in a day.
On the other hand, a lot goes on at Amazon that conscious consumers are not OK with, like its impact on local economies. Like its opposition to unionization by its employees. Like its massive CO2 emissions: 69 million metric tons in 2023, which is about what the nation of Hungary emits in a year.
Add it all up and you might decide it’s time to look for options. Unfortunately, they aren’t easy to find—which is why lot of people haven’t found them. One-fourth of Americans shop at Amazon at least once a week and half of Americans now have an Amazon Prime account.
But options are out there. Maybe they’re not as simple, cheap and fast as Amazon but they do exist. They sell what you need—and what you just plain want—and they do it without a moral compromise packed in bubble wrap. In 2021, Amazon generated enough plastic waste to cover the Earth in 800 layers, despite the fact that Amazon “would have no problem” switching to plastic-free packaging, according to former Amazon executive Rachel Johnson Greer. “It’s really a question of will.”
A lot of people find information like that to be ethically suffocating. So they’re exploring alternatives to Amazon. In our recent survey of CREDO Mobile members and their shopping habits, 96% of respondents said they consider themselves socially responsible consumers and 97% said they purchase from socially responsible companies. As for Amazon, 17% of our members said they never shop there, 26% said “sometimes and I feel bad about it” and around half said they use Amazon only sometimes or rarely.
More ethical “everything”
Amazon famously calls itself “the everything store.” But there are other ecommerce sites that offer a wide range of products and do it in an ethical and ecofriendly way. They usually pack with less plastic or with sustainable materials, offset their shipping emissions and focus on earth-conscious items and brands. Their prices might be a bit higher but they don’t inflict a large hidden cost on their workers, our planet and its people.
DoneGood has clothing, bags and totes, home accessories, kitchenware, jewelry, self-care and a lot more. The DoneGood team vets every brand to make sure it pays decent wages, empowers communities and has ecofriendly practices.
There is eBay, of course, where you can shrink your shopping footprint by purchasing secondhand. Also check out eBay Refurbished, which sells reconditioned products up to 50% off the list price, with warranties as good or better than the original warranties. And Etsy, the global marketplace that supports
independent creators of crafts, housewares, art, soap, planters, T-shirts and much more. In 2020, it generated almost $4 billion in income for small businesses.
Other sustainable, ethical alternatives to Amazon include:
- EarthHero: home, kitchen, cleaning, beauty, pets.
- Grove Collaborative: nontoxic, cruelty-free household supplies, personal care and wellness.
- Hive: household goods, beauty products and groceries.
- Made Trade: home goods, furniture, gifts and clothing.
- Package Free: home, beauty, kitchen.
- Ten Thousand Villages: fair trade gifts and accessories made by artisans around the world.
- Thrive Market: up to 30% off organic and non-GMO groceries.
Books not from Amazon
Local bookstores are what Amazon isn’t: a relaxing space to be around books and other people who enjoy them. And that’s why bookstores continue to thrive. In 2023, more than 200 new independent bookstores opened, while membership in the American Booksellers Association grew by 11%.
A lot of those bookstores now offer what Amazon does: delivery. If you have a bookstore in your town, there is a good chance it will bring books to your door.
If you want to shop online, there is a “neighborhood” bookstore on the internet: Bookshop.org, where you’ll find just about any book you can find at Amazon—and the community feeling that makes your local bookstore such a joy, albeit in virtual form.
Better still, Bookshop.org supports independent booksellers around the world. It knows local bookstores are vital hubs that foster culture, curiosity and a love of reading, and it’s committed to helping them. The site gives independent bookstores a platform to compete against Amazon, as every purchase at the site supports independent bookstores financially and helps them maintain their presence in local communities. Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $28 million for independent bookstores.
CREDO Mobile has partnered with Bookshop.org and you can visit our affiliate store if you’re looking for a shortcut to progressive books or books by LGBTQ+ and BIPOC authors. Make a purchase at the CREDO Mobile store and you’ll also generate donations for the progressive nonprofits we support. (We’ll earn a commission if you click through from our affiliate site and make a purchase at Bookshop.org.)
A phone company that connects with you
Every day, more people are choosing to do business with companies that share their values. They’re shopping local stores instead of Amazon. They’re opting for sustainable clothes instead of sweatshop fast-fashion. They’re buying reusable tumblers instead of drinks in plastic bottles. In fact, over 80% of consumers now say they prefer brands whose values align with their own.
Does this sound like you? Then join us. Switch to CREDO Mobile, the phone company that shares your progressive values.
You’ll get all you need from your mobile service: the nation’s top-rated network, competitive plans and great deals on new devices.
And you’ll get much more: a powerful way to support your values whenever you use your phone. Our unique donations program generates funding for progressive nonprofits working hard to make our planet a more free, fair and sustainable place. Since 1985, we’ve donated over $95 million to nonprofit groups like Earthjustice, Rainforest Action Network and Stand.earth. These donations cost our members nothing extra. But they mean everything to the groups that depend on us.
Posted on November 4, 2024
In November, CREDO Mobile is supporting Fight For the Future, Legal Defense Fund (LDF) and Other 98%.
The November, there is another important election. We will admit, this is not as consequential as the election on November 5th. CREDO Mobile is proud to be donating to 3 amazing nonprofits this month. We will allocate the donations based on the number of votes for each nonprofit. You can vote at www.credodonations.com.
Fight for the Future
Fight for the Future is a queer women–led group of activists, strategists, and technologists who have been behind the largest online protests in history. We channel outrage into people power to ensure that technology is a force for liberation— not oppression. Funding from CREDO members will help Fight for the Future defend privacy for vulnerable communities, stop the spread of censorship, facial recognition, and anti-abortion surveillance, and ensure freedom of expression and civil liberties online.
Legal Defense Fund (LDF)
Since 1940, LDF has been a pioneer in the struggle for racial justice. LDF is committed to defending democracy. You can power LDF’s work to expand voting access, empower voters, and safeguard voting rights in 2024 and in future elections. Funding from CREDO will bolster LDF’s ongoing work—litigation, advocacy, research, and education—to protect voting rights at the local, state, and federal levels. Defending democracy is a long-term investment that benefits all Americans.
Other 98%
Other98 is behind some of the most powerful progressive memes of the last 15 years. We craft content that reaches millions daily, drowning out misinformation and moving people to take action for economic, environmental, and social justice. CREDO funds will support our team of storytellers as they go all-hands-on-deck for our 2024 GOTV efforts – with special focus on correcting misinformation and exposing Project 2025 – as well as in the immediate aftermath of the election results.
Voting is quick, easy and free. Be sure to vote by the end of the month. Tell your friends and family to vote for the groups that they want to support.
These donations are only possible because of CREDO Mobile customers. Learn more about CREDO Mobile and help make progressive change every time you use your phone. It is easy to switch and you will be glad you did.
Posted on November 1, 2024
Donations spotlight: Support the Legal Defense Fund in its work to advance Black political engagement
Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This November, the Legal Defense Fund is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will be vital to the nonprofit as it defends and advances the full dignity and citizenship of Black people in America—and in American elections.
Read this important blog post about the Legal Defense Fund, then visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send much-needed grant money to the group to assist its efforts—and the efforts of our other outstanding November grantees.
For decades, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) has engaged with partners nationwide to monitor election issues, pursue proactive policy interventions and—when needed—file lawsuits to protect voting rights. Recent election cycles provide a window into the issues voters may face in 2024, as well as a rubric for how the civil rights community and individual voters can take affirmative steps to protect and expand access to our democracy.
Everyone can take simple steps to build a more resilient democracy. Here are just a few ideas for where you can start as we head into the 2024 election.
Check your registration status
This is vital, especially if you’re a new voter or have not voted in recent years. You can check your registration at LDF.vote. There you can also get information to register for the first time or reregister, find sample ballots, locate your polling site and sign up for election reminders. To get more voters registered, consider sharing the site with five friends, who can then do the same.
Find your action community
Identify the grassroots power-building and movement organizations doing voter education and mobilization work in your state. Join a local NAACP branch or look for groups in the State Voices network, like LDF client Power Coalition for Equity and Justice in Louisiana and LDF partners like Alabama Forward.
Dedicate some of your time
Make a commitment to volunteer with nonpartisan organizations like those listed above or sign up to be an election monitor with LDF at LDF.vote. You can also apply to be a paid poll worker in your community by visiting PowerthePolls.org/LDF.
Get creative
You know your family, friends and community best. What are the messages and calls to action that will get them most excited about the upcoming elections? Invite friends over for a “Snacks, Sips and Sample Ballots” night to talk through items on the ballot and make a voting plan over snacks and libations. Make a bracket and see who can get to the final rounds by completing the most voter-outreach calls, texts or door knocks week-to-week. Think outside the box, recruit some friends and then get active!
Whichever path you choose, there are ways to exercise your power before, on and beyond Election Day. The outcomes in 2024 will be decided by those who make a plan and LDF will continue to produce resources like this to help you craft yours.
In LDF’s 2021 publication “Democracy Defended: Key Findings from the 2020 Election,” LDF acknowledged the unprecedented convergence of issues in the 2020 election cycle: a global pandemic, an international apex in calls for racial justice and police accountability, and a pernicious movement to advance the “Big Lie,” which led to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. While situated in this unique history, the findings from that report and the lived experiences of Black voters and other voters navigating the election process in 2020 nonetheless continue to inform how the election process may unfold in November.
That’s why we engage with national and state-based partners to galvanize voter turnout and monitor the election. Below is a preview of what to expect in 2024—and suggestions for how you can best prepare for the election.
Our recommendations are based on data collected from multiple election cycles, including 2022’s midterm elections. That year, LDF collaborated with partners to conduct over 70 volunteer trainings, equipping volunteers with the tools and skills they needed to identify and report issues at over 2,300 poll sites. We compiled data on issues reported by media, posted online, provided by grassroots sources and observed at the thousands of poll sites volunteers visited.
As a result of this data collection, we created the following list of key election issues that inform the path forward to 2024—and also identified opportunities for proactive advocacy so you can prepare to cast your ballot.
Voting infrastructure and administration
Issues concerning election-administration infrastructure permeated the 2020 elections, midterms and other elections in between in all of LDF’s focus states. Volunteers observed inaccessible poll sites for seniors and voters with disabilities, poor signage identifying poll sites, technology failures on official websites and at poll sites, and insufficient supplies of election materials at poll sites.
Officials must prioritize investing in the infrastructure of America’s elections in 2024, including prioritizing accessibility at every level.
Availability of voting options
The limited availability of multiple voting options continues to be a barrier to political participation, especially among Black voters. The lack of no-excuse mail-in and early-voting options in several states increased the need for voters to cast ballots on Election Day in recent years, which led to long lines and heightened opportunities for disenfranchisement due to election-administration failures.
In addition, Black voters reported experiencing intimidation and harassment while voting at the polls on Election Day. Expansion of early voting options in some states, including South Carolina, where early voting was available to voters for the first time in 2022, reduced these pressures on Election Day and improved access to the ballot box during the midterm cycle. In 2024, Louisiana will also pilot extended days of early voting due to legislation LDF helped pass in 2021.
Broad efforts like these to extend early in-person voting options are critical but also should be coupled with options for mail-in and absentee accommodations like those that were integral to strong turnout numbers in 2020, because they limited congestion and other issues at polling sites.
Transparency of poll site changes
Voters must know where to vote and have reasonable access and transportation to that location to cast a ballot on Election Day. Yet the process for poll site selection varies across states, and poll site listings can be decentralized, resulting in unreliable information and voter confusion.
Leading up to the 2024 elections, it will remain critical to promote transparency in poll site selection processes and listings, and LDF will continue to monitor for discriminatory poll site changes and closures in Black communities.
Poll worker recruitment and improved training
Poll workers serve as the frontline of America’s democracy. The 2020 elections, especially, revealed the importance of recruiting a rising generation of election staff to promote the resiliency of our political process. Further improvement to poll worker training is also one of the best proactive ways to avoid confusion, congestion and other issues on voting days.
For example, in 2022 poll workers in multiple states improperly restricted LDF monitors and other nonpartisan volunteers, who were wearing apparel with nonpartisan messaging, from being within the electioneering boundary zone around poll sites. These issues arose due to incorrect interpretations of electioneering rules and poor poll worker training—and could have been avoided with improved and accurate training curricula.
Anticipating and countering election sabotage attempts
Strategic monitoring and messaging efforts to detect and counteract misinformation and disinformation campaigns will continue to be vital to dismantling election sabotage efforts and echoes of the “Big Lie” in future election cycles. The rise of new technology and rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies amplify the need for civil rights groups to be well-versed in the cutting-edge use of these tools, especially to advocate for election-related safeguards.
The path to the ballot box in 2024 is riddled with roadblocks—but it doesn’t have to be. The observation of issues from recent election cycles have equipped voting rights advocates with the tools needed to clear barriers to voting and educate voters on the simple steps they can take to ensure their ballots can be cast and are counted. LDF will continue to pursue proactive policy fixes at the federal and state levels—like the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and state-level equivalents—as well as monitor issues year-round in 2024 and beyond.
This blog is an updated version of an article originally published on LDF’s website. To read more blogs like these, head over to naacpldf.org/originalcontent.
Posted on October 22, 2024
Phone porting fraud: First, scammers steal your number—then your money
It’s a nightmare scenario. You wake up, grab your phone and discover that you have no service. You can’t call or text. But you still have WiFi, so you check your email—and see a message from your bank saying someone just transferred thousands of dollars from your account to an account you’ve never heard of.
What just happened? You’ve become a victim of phone porting fraud, a rapidly growing scam in which hackers call your carrier and pretend they’re you, then ask the carrier to port your phone number over to a mobile account that they control. Or they steal your number by calling your carrier and asking for a replacement SIM card to be sent to them.
With your number in hand, scammers go to town
The scammers do their homework. To prepare, they go online and gather up your personal information, from your name, address and birth date to your pets’ names and the last four digits of your Social Security number. All of this is easily found on the internet. Or they might email or text you, claiming to be a business you’ve transacted with, and ask for “confirmation” of your personal details. Scammers with more nerve will call you directly.
Once they have your phone number, scammers can go to town. They can reset your usernames and passwords, access your bank accounts and transfer money out. They can get into your credit card accounts.
Because the scammers now have your phone number, the security measures intended to protect you from fraud now work for them. They get all the texts and calls intended for you, so they can verify any transactions they make. Sure, they’ll be asked security questions. But remember that personal information they’ve collected? Armed with this, they’re able to correctly answer a wide range of questions that might be put to them.
Here’s how to protect yourself
Take these steps to prevent port out fraud.
- Protect your account with additional security: If you don’t already have a password you use to verify your identity when you call your carrier about your account, ask your carrier to add one.
- Be alert: If you haven’t opted into email and text notifications from your bank and other financial institutions, do it now. If you get a message notifying you of a transaction you don’t recognize, contact the company that did the transaction immediately.
[For CREDO Mobile Customers Only: CREDO Mobile will email you if port out activity is initiated on your account. Be sure to check notifications from CREDO Mobile. ]
- Don’t share too much: Scammers comb the internet, especially social media, for personal details they can use to impersonate you, like your phone number, birth date, address, names of your pets, even the make and model of your car. Don’t put any of that information online. And don’t use any of it in your username and password.
- Don’t answer: If you get a call, text or email asking you to supply personal information, don’t give it. If you think the request could be legitimate, call the company asking for your information directly.
- Move fast: If you lose service on your device, that’s the first indication your number has been ported away. So take quick action. Contact your carrier, your bank and other financial institutions. Also ask for a fraud alert on your credit card reports.
CREDO Mobile Port Lock prevents port out fraud
Port Lock is a free feature we offer to keep scammers from porting out your number behind your back. If you’re already a CREDO Mobile customer, call us at 1-866-306-2900 and ask for Port Lock to be added to your mobile number.
If you’re not a customer, please consider joining CREDO Mobile, the only phone company that cares as much about our world as you do. To date, we’ve donated over $95 million to nonprofit groups fighting for climate action, reproductive freedom, LGBTQ+ rights and other progressive causes. Groups like Friends of the Earth, Planned Parenthood and the National LGBTQ Task Force.
Join us today and you’ll get all you want in a phone company: competitive plans, great deals on new devices and the country’s top-rated, most reliable network.
You’ll also get an easy, effective way to make a difference, just by using your phone. Because each time you do, you’ll generate donations for nonprofit groups dedicated to the causes you believe in. These donations cost you nothing—but they mean everything to the groups that rely on us.
Posted on October 10, 2024
Are you charging your phone wrong?
Phones are awesome. We love our phones. But let’s be honest. There are times when our phones annoy us, especially as they get older. They respond sluggishly to taps and prompts. They load apps slowly. Sometimes the screen freezes.
If your phone is acting like this, there’s a good chance the battery is to blame. Because as your battery ages, its health degrades and it’s not able to supply the juice your phone needs to run at peak efficiency.
Your goal is to keep your battery young and fit. And to do that, you have to charge it right. Here’s how.
Charge when the battery reaches 20%
Your life is measured in years. Your phone battery’s life is measured in charge cycles. Most batteries are good for 300-500 charge cycles. One charge cycle equals the complete discharge and recharge of the battery.
To minimize the number of charge cycles and extend your battery’s life, charge your phone when the battery reaches 20%. You’ve no doubt heard somewhere at some time from someone that it’s good for a battery to fully drain it. This is a myth. Charging your battery from 0% will degrade it.
Don’t charge to 100%
Fully charging your battery will stress it out. Instead, charge it up to 80%-85%, then unplug it.
Don’t leave your phone plugged in
A lot of people plug in their phone and let it charge whenever they’re not using it—in the car, at home, at work. But leaving your phone plugged in after it’s fully charged can damage the battery.
It’s called “trickle charging.” If you leave your phone plugged in after it reaches 100%, the charger will top up the battery continuously and diminish its capacity.
Minimize fast charging
Most phones nowadays come with fast-charging capability, so you can charge your phone in a fraction of the time it would take otherwise. Sometimes this is necessary. But fast-charging your phone repeatedly will damage the battery and shorten its lifespan.
Don’t let your phone get too hot
Heat is bad for lithium-ion batteries. So keep your phone out of the sun. And keep in mind that, if your phone is in a case, it will heat up more quickly.
Get a new battery instead of a new phone
When their battery’s performance begins to flag, most people buy a new phone. It’s certainly more convenient. But it’s also more expensive (about 10 times more) and not good for the environment.
There’s an obstacle, of course. It’s not easy to replace your battery. A lot of modern phones have embedded batteries that are hard to switch out. But many manufacturers will replace the battery in your phone. Or you can find a local repair service to do it.
Join CREDO Mobile
Taking care of your battery makes good sense, economically and environmentally. There’s a phone company that does the same: CREDO Mobile.
We’re economical. We’ve got great deals on new devices, competitive plans and the nation’s top-rated, most reliable network.
And we’re committed to the environment. We have a long history—since 1985—of supporting nonprofit groups dedicated to defending our natural world. Nonprofits like Friends of the Earth, the Center for Biological Diversity and Rainforest Action Network. To date, we’ve donated over $20 Million to these environmental groups and dozens more.
Ready to join the phone company that fights for the causes you care about? It’s easy to do.
Posted on October 8, 2024
On climate change: CREDO Mobile makes a difference
In early 2024, we sent a donation to Inside Climate News, the leading voice of independent climate journalism and a powerful force in the fight to save our planet.
In 2015, ICN broke the story of Exxon and its decades-long campaign to spread disinformation about global warming and undermine climate action—all for the sake of Exxon profit. This was a crime against humanity and Exxon is now on trial for it. But the trial would not be happening without the work of Inside Climate News.
In 2020, ICN uncovered American and Chinese factories that were emitting large volumes of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas, despite having access to inexpensive abatement technology. Now, four years later, the story is being used by the U.S. State Department to move toward a potential climate agreement between the US and China to significantly reduce emissions of nitrous oxide – to the tune of taking approximately 50 million cars off the road.
Since receiving our 2024 donation, ICN has accelerated its efforts. It has published over 800 stories so far this year and they’re reaching a wide audience. ICN now has more than 10 million regular readers and it has connected with an additional 6.5 million readers in 2024 through its partnership with Apple News.
ICN is providing important coverage of the 2024 elections and implications for the climate, like the role played by fracking in Pennsylvania’s competitive Senate race. ICN expanded its local reporting network in June with the addition of a bureau in North Carolina that has already broken a number of major environmental stories.
ICN was able to do all these things because our customers do one thing: use our service. When they do, they raise much-needed donations for progressive nonprofit groups like ICN. If you’re a CREDO Mobile member, thank you. If you’re not, please join us now and make a difference in the world—just by using your phone.
Posted on October 8, 2024
Donations spotlight: Help the National Women’s Law Center fight book bans targeting women and people of color
Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This October, the National Women’s Law Center is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will support the NWLC as it works to protect and advance women’s legal rights, with a focus on economic security, education, employment, health and other policy areas that are vital to women and their families.
Read this important blog post by Mercedes Hightower, NWLC’s Senior Manager for Campaigns, Education Justice, then visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send much-needed grant money to the group to assist its efforts—and the efforts of our other outstanding October grantees.
The National Women’s Law Center fights for gender justice—in the courts, in public policy and in our society—working across the issues that are central to the lives of women and girls. We use the law in all its forms to change culture and drive solutions to the gender inequity that shapes our society and to break down the barriers that harm all of us, especially women of color, LGBTQ people, and low-income women and families. For over 50 years, we have been on the leading edge of every major legal and policy victory for women.
In this post, we’ll examine the way that book bans disproportionately target books by and about women, people of color and LGBTQI+ individuals, and detail the impact of such censorship. At the National Women’s Law Center, we’re committed to ensuring all students have the opportunity to learn with safety and dignity. Please consider voting for the NWLC to receive a portion of CREDO Mobile’s monthly donation this October. Your support could make a significant difference during a critical time for gender justice!
Targeted censorship silences voices and erases people
In the United States, there has always been a struggle to provide equal access to stories and histories of diverse communities. We’ve slowly been making progress but a renewed focus on banning books seeks to take us backward. These bans disproportionately target books by and about women, people of color and LGBTQI+ people. This targeted censorship silences the voices and erases the complex histories and experiences of these communities, sending the message that there is something obscene about bringing visibility to their stories—and further normalizing stigma and discrimination against them.
Historically, book bans have been tools of oppression used to maintain the status quo by suppressing dissenting ideas and perspectives. Today, the books most frequently challenged are those that confront societal norms (which are often grounded in white, cis-hetero ideals of how people should look or act) or provide a voice to those who have been historically silenced and marginalized. The works of authors like Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison and Yaa Gyasi are frequently found on banned book lists—not because they promote harmful ideologies but because they tell difficult truths about the experiences of people in the U.S. who have managed to thrive in the face of extreme discrimination and violence.
The danger of book bans extends beyond the immediate silencing of authors and stories. They contribute to a broader cultural amnesia, systematically erasing the histories and experiences of marginalized communities. This erasure not only distorts our understanding of the world but also perpetuates the marginalization of these communities by denying their stories a place in our collective consciousness.
Moreover, the targeting of books by and about women and people of color sends a chilling message: that their stories are less valuable and less worthy of being told. It reinforces the idea that the dominant narratives—the white, male, cis, heterosexual experience—are the only ones that matter. This undermines the importance of diversity in literature and deprives readers of both crucial representation of their identities and experiences and the opportunity to engage with a wide range of perspectives and experiences.
Book bans limit our understanding of the world
In a time when we should be encouraging the exploration of diverse voices and stories, book bans do the opposite. They limit our understanding of the world and reinforce harmful stereotypes and prejudices. Instead of banning books, we should be promoting them—especially those that challenge us to think critically about the world we live in and the people in that world with us.
As we consider the impact of these book bans, it is crucial to recognize that the fight against censorship is also a fight to elevate the voices of women, people of color, LGBTQ+ folks and many other marginalized communities. By fighting back against these bans, we affirm the importance of diverse stories and the power of literature to broaden our understanding of the world and people who are different from us. To ban a book is to silence a voice—and when that happens, we lose the opportunity to learn, grow and see the world through the eyes of another. In the end, it is not just the books that are at risk but our collective hope to be and do better.
To highlight our fight against banning books, NWLC staff are sharing a list of some of our favorite books and what they’ve meant to us. We created two lists: one focused on young adult and adult books and another focused on children’s books. This list is just a small snapshot of the books now being targeted across the country and we will fight for everyone’s right to read them if they choose.
To learn more about our work fighting for equitable access to education and the history of diverse communities, visit NWLC.org.
