Following The Daily Caller’s revealing the identity of its founder, the lefty ad-targeting group known as Sleeping Giants took to Twitter to defend itself.
Matt Rivitz, a San Francisco-based ad copywriter, tried to take his unveiling into his own hands by confirming his identity on Twitter. He also tweeted that this was not the way “I wanted things to play out,” and that “I have nothing to hide.” He promised that his group would continue its mission as it had always done.
The original Daily Caller article that revealed Rivitz’ identity, described Sleeping Giants as a “left-wing activist group” whose stated goal was “to cripple Breitbart,” the conservative online publication whose previous head was former Donald Trump advisor Steve Bannon.
The Daily Caller stated, “To accomplish that goal, Sleeping Giants has waged an intense campaign to pressure Breitbart’s advertisers into pulling ads from their website.” Because of this, the company lost “90 percent of its advertisers over the span of two months in 2017.” It continues to keep the pressure on the website’s remaining advertisers.
In response to his unmasking, Rivitz introduced himself on Twitter. He stated, “Hey everyone. It’s Matt Rivitz. Founder of Sleeping Giants here. Last night @peterjhasson from @dailycaller decided to publish my name as well as the names of my family and friends.”
He sent out a series of successive tweets explaining the unfortunate situation and declared to everyone that Sleeping Giants would not be hindered at all by this revelation. He stated, “I, and the rest of the team here, have always wanted to stay anonymous to keep this about the mission rather than the individuals involved. That hasn’t changed.”
Rivitz proclaimed that he has been “super proud” of his operation and its success in uniting “hundreds of thousands of people” in order to “make hate unprofitable.”
Showing some love to his fans, he added, “This has never been about me or us. It’s about you. Thank you for your support. The mission continues.”
A last tweet revealed some of the acrimony Rivitz seemed to be trying to downplay. He mocked conservative opinion with a parting shot, stating, “Now back to being called fascist communist soros-funded free speech-stomping anti-American deep state plants like we always have.”
