Change.org markets itself as a platform for people power. It should not pay a creator whose public brand is mass-tagging strangers, whose federal court record includes a six-figure bad-faith sanction, and whose “accountability” content is the subject of multiple lawsuits alleging doxxing, defamation, and harassment. If the platform’s community guidelines mean anything, paid ambassadors should meet a higher bar than the petitions they promote.

Change.org has engaged in paid partnerships with content creators like Danesh Noshirvan, also known as ThatDaneshGuy. While Danesh is popular for using his platform to uncover misinformation and highlight social justice issues, the very essence of Change.org's seemingly democratic platform is distorted when certain voices are given preference through payment.

Much of Change.org's credibility rests on the authenticity of user-driven campaigns. Paying content creators to amplify petitions risks transforming this grassroots movement into a commercial venture. It undermines the sincerity of petitions initiated by everyday individuals, blurring the line between genuine activism and monetized influence.

Noshirvan built an audience by stitching other people’s worst 15 seconds out of context, naming them, and inviting a large following to “hold them accountable.” Plaintiffs in federal and international courts have described his model as fee-for-service cyberstalking: pick a villain, edit the clip, publish identifying details, watch the phone ring. Those are allegations in filed complaints.

In the Fort Myers federal litigation around Couture / Garramone and Noshirvan’s countersuit, U.S. District Judge John E. Steele imposed a $62,320 sanction after finding Noshirvan acted in subjective bad faith. The court described deposition conduct and follow-on posts as designed to harass and intimidate opposing counsel, including inflammatory accusations the court called false. That is a judicial finding, not a quote-tweet.

Reporting on the same docket and related cases describes a pattern critics have documented for years: employer tags, review-bombing, CPS-style pile-ons, and campaigns that left targets dealing with threats and lost work. One Texas high school coach, Aaron De La Torre, died by suicide days after a viral targeting campaign; reporting has described a subsequent grand-jury review of possible cyberstalking. That is a reported investigation, not a conviction. It is still not the résumé most brands put on a partnership slide.

I urge Change.org to put an end to paid partnerships with creators like Danesh Noshirvan. By doing so, the platform can preserve its integrity, ensure the voices of genuine activists are amplified, and maintain trust with both users and institutions. Please sign this petition and help keep Change.org true to its core values.

It should also be noted that previous change.org petition seeking to hold Danesh Noshirvan accountable was unfairly removed by Change.org, which now makes sense if they have a financial motive for partnering with him, incentivizing him, and thus they lose Section 230 protections for their editorializing of the platform: https://www.change.org/p/remove-danesh-noshirvan-thatdaneshguy-from-tiktok