What to Do if Your Nonprofit Relies on Big Tech

by
Napa Legal Staff
Format
Whitepaper
Whitepaper
Issue Area:
Big Tech
Perspective

The first months of 2021 brought new sources of division, as “Big Tech” companies elected to suspend business relationships and censor several religious organizations on grounds that their views were unacceptable in the public square. Chilling examples include Twitter’s recent lockdowns of accounts operated by Catholic World Report and The Daily Citizen.

Bottom Line

The first months of 2021 brought new sources of division, as “Big Tech” companies elected to suspend business relationships and censor several religious organizations on grounds that their views were unacceptable in the public square.[1] Chilling examples include Twitter’s recent lockdowns of accounts operated by Catholic World Report and The Daily Citizen.[2]  

Twitter locked these faith-based nonprofits out of their accounts because of articles they published questioning the qualifications of one of President Biden’s cabinet nominees.[3] Due to the lockout, both news organizations were unable to communicate with their followers and participate in the broader public dialogue on Twitter.[4]  

Despite such attempts at censorship, faith-based organizations need not and should not bend their convictions because of a dependence on, or fear of, Big Tech. Rather than wait for service interruption to happen, lay apostolates, ministries, and religious nonprofits should instead be proactive and take the following measures:  

(1) identify the core services for which your nonprofit relies on Big Tech companies;  

(2) develop a short-term plan to implement if service interruptions occur; and  

(3) develop a long-term plan to reduce your nonprofit’s dependencies on these organizations.

By being proactive and committed to truth, faith-based organizations can advance the common good and share their beliefs without fear of reprisal. This white paper outlines how to begin this process so that spiritual entrepreneurs can be better prepared to protect their organizations and achieve their missions.

Identify the Core Services Big Tech Companies Provide to Your Nonprofit  

The first step to protecting your nonprofit in this context is determining whether your organization relies on Big Tech for any mission-critical services.  

As part of a risk-management plan, your organization should first identify what three to five activities are core to your operations and, second, whether any of these activities rely on Big Tech services to be successful. There is no technical definition for a “core activity.” A rule of thumb is to ask: “Could my organization operate effectively and achieve its mission in the short-term and long-term without this service?”

Some general examples include: communication with constituents (such as program participants, volunteers, donors, and supporters), cloud hosting, payment processing, website hosting, customer relationship management, and product or content promotion.  

Specifically, for a faith-based news organization, mission-critical services probably include the use of social media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook. For an educational organization, such as a school or tutoring program, core services might include website hosting, shared file drives, and Google Classroom or Zoom access. For community service organizations, such as a homeless shelter, core services might be event-related functions on social media sites such as Facebook. For a pro-life organization, mission-critical services might include access to YouTube to publish informative videos and the use of an e-newsletter service, such as MailChimp, to distribute email updates to thousands of readers simultaneously.

Developing a Short-Term Plan

Once your organization has identified any core activities that depend on Big Tech services, the organization should develop a simple plan to execute if services are suspended.  

This plan should include both a regular system of backing-up key resources and a “plan of action” to employ when necessary.

The Back-Up System

The “back-up” plan should preserve your organization’s access to key information and resources. The plan should be effective immediately; the wise leader plans ahead.[5]

For example, if customer relationship management or communication is key to your organization’s mission, your back-up system should include ensuring you have back-up databases and up-to-date contact information for your supporters. You should periodically download a list of Twitter followers, MailChimp subscribers, or even Salesforce customers and save a copy offline.  

If your organization posts content to platforms such as Facebook or YouTube, you should make sure high-quality copies of the content are saved offline.  

Additionally, as discussed earlier in footnote four, free services are more vulnerable to service interruptions or censorship than paid services. Paid services typically come with a contract such as “terms or service” or “service agreement.” A binding contract with a vendor will offer your organization additional legal protections that may lower the risks of a service interruption. In cases where a free option and a paid option are available for a mission-critical service, review the “terms of service” for the paid option. If the terms are generally favorable to paying customers, consider upgrading to the paid service to obtain the additional protections of contract law. To determine if a contract is favorable, look for language about:  

Your Rights. Terms beginning with “Customer will have the right…” or “Vendor will make services available to Customer in exchange for…” will tell you what rights your organization will have to products or services from the vendor under the contract.  

Contract Suspension or Termination. Language like “the vendor may terminate” or “the vendor reserves the right to suspend service” can tell you when and how the vendor can cancel or suspend your access to the service.  

Policing of Speech. Review the contract terms so that you understand whether the vendor is assigning itself the right to regulate and censor speech on its platform and, if so, to what extent.  

The Plan of Action

The plan of action should outline the steps the organization should take if a mission-critical service is suspended.  

If the interruption is to a social media account, the plan might include some of the following elements:  

- A list of names and contact information for reporters who can report the suspension to the public. The ability to quickly “go public” in cases of censorship has been key to the resolution of past incidents. An example is highlighted in this article from The National Catholic Register.  

- Name and contact information of customer service representatives at the service-provider, who can be contacted to appeal the suspension (for example, who would you contact to appeal a decision by YouTube to remove a video or by Twitter to lock your account?).  

- An old-fashioned “phone tree” of partner organizations and supporters that might be able to distribute content on behalf of your organization until the service interruption is resolved.  

- A draft email and email list to communicate the interruption to key constituents.

- The contact information of several public interest law firms.

If the interruption is to the posting of content through a publishing platform such as YouTube, the plan of action should include:  

- Alternative publishing sites where content can be posted; and  

- A communication plan for updating followers and directing them to the new website.  

Focus on the Family’s response to the suspension of their Daily Citizen Twitter account offers an example of an effective short-term plan. Because Focus on the Family had other affiliated Twitter accounts, when the Daily Citizen account was locked, the affiliated accounts were immediately able to notify subscribers and share links to the story which had been censored. Allied news organizations were able to quickly pick up the story. Another lesson from this example is that organizations that rely heavily on social media organizations should consider having an affiliated back-up account(s) to use if service on the primary account is locked. Users could be notified via email to refer to that account if the primary account is suspended.  

Developing a Long-Term Plan  

While a short-term plan can minimize the damage of service interruptions, the organization should also consider a long-term plan to reduce its reliance on Big Tech companies and other organizations that might wish to suppress the work of faith-based nonprofits.  

The questions to ask in developing the long-term plan include:  

  1. Whether there are cost-effective ways to bring core services in-house;  
  1. Whether there are alternative vendors that might better align with your organization; and  
  1. If the first two options are not available, what redundant options could be used if necessary. (An example of a redundant system might be maintaining an up-to-date spreadsheet of email information for subscribers to facilitate sending manual emails if needed, but continuing to use MailChimp when it is available; or creating an account, but continuing to use Twitter.)  

Conclusion  

As Christians, we are called to pray and work for a more united society. We are also called to be prudent and courageous in speaking the Truth and advocating for the common good, even when our views are characterized as unpopular.  

By managing the risk of censorship posed by over-reliance on Big Tech firms and other corporations that do not support the presence and activities of faith-based organizations, faith-based nonprofits contribute to the common good and ensure the people they serve can continue to receive help, support, and the Truth.  

Further Reading:  

Technology and the Common Good, by Maggie Beecher, Napa Legal  

The ‘Common Carrier’ Solution to Social-Media Censorship, by Tunku Varadarajan, The Wall Street Journal

Related Resources: Public Interest Law Firm Legal Inquiry Forms  

ADF

American Center for Law and Justice

Becket

First Liberty

Pacific Justice Institute

Legal Disclaimer: This white paper contains general educational information related to legal concepts, but this information does not constitute legal advice. Anyone seeking legal advice is strongly encouraged to consult with a licensed attorney regarding any of the matters discussed herein. Although licensed attorneys work with Napa Institute Legal Foundation (“Napa Legal”), Napa Legal is not a law firm and does not undertake legal representation on behalf of any clients. Further, no licensed attorney working with or on behalf of Napa Legal agrees to undertake legal representation on behalf of any client unless the terms of such representation are set forth in a separate, written representation agreement.

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