We’re writing to you today to discuss one of the biggest threats to independent journalism today: Big Tech.

Over the last few years, we’ve seen big social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter/X change their algorithms to suppress links to our website. Visits from Twitter/X fell by more than 70 percent in just a matter of months. Traffic from our own Facebook page crashed by 99 percent.

Meanwhile, traffic to The Intercept from Google Search has been cut nearly in half over the last year as links to our website have been increasingly supplanted by AI Overviews that frequently regurgitate the work of human journalists.

For a digital news outlet like The Intercept, this is literally an existential threat. We rely on donations from readers for over 60 percent of our budget, and fewer readers translates directly to fewer donations.

That’s why our year-end fundraising drive is so vitally important this year. If we’re going to keep doing the cutting-edge investigative journalism we’re known for in this era of Big Tech suppression, we need readers like you to step up.

Big Tech oligarchs like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg couldn’t care less about independent journalism, and they’ll do everything they can to keep people on their platforms as long as possible. The only way journalism will survive is if readers support it.

To keep The Intercept on strong footing going into 2026, we need to raise $550,000 by December 31. Will you donate $5 to help meet The Intercept’s critical end-of-year fundraising goal?