Sleeping Giants is a left-of-center social media activism organization founded by activist Matt Rivitz.

Controversies

Breitbart Boycott

In Fall 2017, Sleeping Giants led an advertising boycott of Breitbart News Network. Each company with an advertisement on Breitbart’s website received notification from Sleeping Giants on one of their social media pages. As of June 20, 2018, some 3870 companies pulled their advertisements from Breitbart’s website.¹

Sleeping Giants also launched a campaign exposing institutions that have invested in Renaissance Technologies LLC because its CEO, Robert Mercer, was a co-owner of Breitbart News and publicly supported conservative figures like Steve Bannon and Milo Yiannopoulos. ² Mercer stepped down from the company’s board a week later, although the role Sleeping Giants’ campaign played in Mercer’s resignation is unclear. ³

Adidas and Kanye West

Sleeping Giants began pressuring Adidas’ Yeezy partnership with Kanye West after he made bizarre statements concerning slavery on Twitter in April 2018.⁴

Nandini Jammi

Sleeping Giants founder Matthew Rivitz received criticism from Nandini Jammi for refusing to acknowledge her as a co-founder, marketer and campaign organizer of the organization.

Jammi claims that Rivitz gaslighted her out of the movement they created as co-founders. She states that while Rivitz confirmed her position as a “founding organizer” of the movement, he originally refused to provide her with a Sleeping Giants email address, include her in speaking opportunities, inform her that he entered Sleeping Giants in a competition at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, and excluded her from the LLC he created for the Sleeping Giants platform.

Ultimately, on the Sleeping Giants Twitter account, Rivitz stated, “Women, particularly Women of Color, often are not heard in our society and she deserves to be listened to,” and has begun to acknowledge Jammi as a co-founder of Sleeping Giants. ⁵

1. Farhi, Paul. “The Mysterious Group That’s Picking Breitbart Apart, One Tweet at a Time.” The Washington Post. September 22, 2017. Accessed June 20, 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-mysterious-group-thats-picking-breitbart-apart-one-tweet-at-a-time/2017/09/22/df1ee0c0-9d5c-11e7-9083-fbfddf6804c2_story.html?utm_term=.51bc2a183370.
2. McElhaney, Alicia. “How Guerilla Tactics Toppled RenTech’s Robert Mercer.” Institutional Investor. Institutional Investor, November 27, 2017. https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b15t3008jy6ny8/how-guerilla-tactics-toppled-rentechs-robert-mercer.
3. McElhaney, Alicia. “How Guerilla Tactics Toppled RenTech’s Robert Mercer.” Institutional Investor. Institutional Investor, November 27, 2017. https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b15t3008jy6ny8/how-guerilla-tactics-toppled-rentechs-robert-mercer.
4. Hasson, Peter. “Liberal Activists Target Kanye Wests Adidas Sponsorship.” The Daily Caller. May 3, 2018. Accessed June 20, 2018. http://dailycaller.com/2018/05/03/kanye-west-adidas-yeezy-sponsorship/.
5. Van Laar, J. “Male Co-Founder of SJW Rage Mob “Sleeping Giants” Used Gaslighting, Misogyny to Keep Female Co-Founder in Her Place.” RedState.com / Salem Media. July 16, 2020. https://www.redstate.com/jenvanlaar/2020/07/16/male-co-founder-of-sjw-rage-mob-sleeping-giants-used-gaslighting-misogyny-to-keep-female-co-founder-in-her-place/.