Fiction Is Good For The Bottomline

Michael Hedges November 4, 2019 Follow on Twitter

Not to be confused with the real world, the social media world was aswirl in the October winds. Those winds, for watchers peering from relative safety, just roared across Halloween unleashing new terrors, all the while laughing sardonically. The best known social media platforms, usually, enlist reasonably articulate executives to project warmth, sincerity and empathy. These are not the attributes quintessential to vampires, werewolves and ghouls. But, it makes a good movie.

Facebook and Twitter squared off last week, chief executives Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey, respectively, pronouncing differing views on political advertising. At the exact same time, both companies announced third quarter financial results. Facebook clearly won the round with stock traders, once again. Twitter missed, again. Winning with stock traders is easy, just takes money.

And Mr. Zuckerberg clarified, again, his devotion to money and stock traders. Earlier in October, Facebook announced its policy on political advertising. No longer would the company discriminate on the basis of fact; or, anything goes. Asked at a US House of Representatives committee meeting (October 23) about false statements in politically targeted ads, Mr. Zuckerberg said they would “probably” be OK. “In most cases, in a democracy, I believe that people should be able to see for themselves what politicians, that they may or may not vote for, are saying.” His appearance before the US congressional committee was widely described as a “train wreck,” said the AP (November 3).

Mr. Dorsey took the opposing view, quite fair in a reasonable debate. Twitter will ban all political advertising globally from mid-November. “Political message earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet,” he said in a statement, quoted by The Verge (October 30). “Paying for reach removes that decision, forcing highly optimized and targeted political messages on people. We believe this decision should not be compromised by money.”

“Our approach is grounded in Facebook’s fundamental belief in free expression, respect for the democratic process, and the belief that, in mature democracies with a free press, political speech is already arguably the most scrutinized speech there is,” said Facebook public policy director for global elections Katie Harbath, in a statement. “Thus, when a politician speaks or makes an ad, we do not send it to third party fact checkers.” Ads and videos hosted on Facebook have been widely credited for influencing the presidential election in Brazil in favor of far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro. Obviously, there are other examples.

“This isn’t about free expression,” said Mr. Dorsey in contrast to Mr. Zuckerberg. “This is about paying for reach. And paying to increase the reach of political speech has significant ramifications that today’s democratic infrastructure may not be prepared to handle.”

The debate is also about the lag in digital regulation. US courts have held that broadcasters cannot censor ads paid for by candidates or campaign committees placed during an election campaign. Broadcasters can refuse to air campaign ads so long as they do not air any ads for that campaign. European Commission rules generally favor no political ads placed on broadcast outlets within the European Union. Of course, newspaper publishers can accept any political advertising. Media tech companies are fiercely opposed to being legally classified as media companies and certainly not regulated like broadcasters lest that get in the way of their huge reach and profit.

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