FAKE NAMES: Change.org allows person’s with fake names like “John Doe” to start malicious petitions in violations of their terms of service, even after the the abusive petitions have been flagged by users.
FAKE SIGNATURES: In 2018, Anne Savage, the CEO of Bicycle Queensland, claimed that a massive Australian–based anti-cycling petition on Change.org was full of false names. She said Bicycle Queensland had received information that many of the names were created by electronic “bots”.
Please See: QLD News – Massive anti-cycling petition full of false names, claims Bicycle Queensland CEO
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/massive-anticycling-petition-full-of-false-names-claims-bicycle-queensland-ceo/news-story/fdf3e0dd06aa3343948dce1020df03b1
VISIBILITY OF PERSONAL INFORMATION: For one to flag a malicious and abusive petition with a fake name and signatures one must join Change.org to flag or complain about the petition
Change.org signatures and other private information including email addresses can be found by search engines.
Please See: “Privacy Policy | Change.org”.
https://www.change.org/policies/privacy
Change.org operates a system for signature hiding, which works only if the user has an account on Change.org
Moreover, Change.org has been criticized for not providing enough information on who has signed a petition; for instance a means of verifying that a petition protesting a politician has been signed by his or her constituents or that the signatures are genuine at all.
Please See: Bloomberg – Change.org Is Amplifying the Power of a Signature
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-29/change-org-is-amplifying-the-power-of-a-signature
DECEPTIVE CORPORATE STRUCTURE: Change.org sells the personal data of users and those who must join to complain of malicious and abusive petitions created with fake names in violation of the terms of service agreement
There has been debate and criticism about this data broker around the fact that Change.org is a for-profit business despite using the .org domain suffix rather than the commercial .com.
Please See: Acorn Founder Wade Rathke: Is Change.org about Real Change or Just Pocket Change?
https://chieforganizer.org/2012/06/20/is-change-org-about-real-change-or-just-pocket-change/
Corporations like Virgin America paid Change.org to host and promote their petitions
SELLING PERSONAL DATA: Change.org sells the personal data provided by the users to third-party companies that hire its services, gaining money at the expense of the users.
The site has been repeatedly accused of fooling its users and hiding the fact that it is “a for-profit entity that has an economic incentive to get people to sign petitions”.
Please See: Information Diet – “Change Dot Biz”
http://informationdiet.com/blog/read/change-dot-biz
Clearly, Change.org is being deliberately deceitful through the use of the change.org name.
Political observers say that the average change.org user does not know that Change.org is a for-profit corporation, and that the corporation plans on using the contact information being provided to them to earn revenue.
PETITIONS FOR SALE: In 2012, the site dropped most of the restrictions it previously placed on paid content. Internal documents began referring to “clients” and “partners” as “advertisers” and stated that “only advertisers strictly identified as ‘hate groups’ are to supposedly be banned.
Please See: Daily Kos – Change.org sells out progressive movement
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2012/10/23/1149092/-Change-org-sells-out-progressive-movement
As a result, Change.org has encouraged astroturfing and abandoning the progressive user base from which it initially gained traction.
Additional controversy arose when the employee who initially leaked the documents was fired
Please See: Crooks And Lairs – Why I Will Not Sign Another Change.org Petition, Ever
https://crooksandliars.com/karoli/why-i-will-not-sign-another-changeorg-petit
Many of the users lost interest in the site after this and a great many of them expressed difficulty in being removed from data broker Change.org’s mailing lists
A great deal of for profit Change.org’s revenue comes from list-building services that go to the highest bidder
There are many criticisms alleging that malicious and down right silly petitions or petitions about the media receive more attention than petitions about “saving ‘actual’ lives.
Please See: Things That Matter – “How can a petition to get a misogynistic pick-up artist refused entry to the UK get 158,000 signatures and our petition to stop the Home Office just leaving people to drown gets 3000? Go figure”
CHANGE.ORG IS BECOMING A JOKE: More and more users are not just becoming disgusted with Change.org’s shady business practices, they are now openly mocking the platform that is becoming more and more irrelevant
Please See: Our Community Now – Seven weird Change.org Petitions To Inspire Your Activism For The New Year (Satire)
https://colorado.ourcommunitynow.com/2019/01/24/7-weird-change-org-petitions-to-inspire-your-activism-for-the-new-year/
PRIVACY REGULATION NEEDED: In New York where the Cahange.org legal and governmental affairs office is located many are starting to call on Governor Andrew Cuomo, New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie And Yonkers’ Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins to lead the way in cracking down on Change.org’s allowing of malicious and abusive petitions to be created in violation of the for profit website’s terms and conditions.
Governor Contact Form | Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
https://www.governor.ny.gov/content/governor-contact-form
We have already seen the damage to our democracy on a national level that these for profit social platforms can do, when they allow fake profiles and maliciously false content to be spread for profit.