Some in Big Tech have made swipes at Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for his company’s free speech stance on political ads, and the hits keep on coming.
The CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey unfollowed Mark Zuckerberg handle “@finkd” in a set of circumstances that were mysterious but may have been intended as a public display. “Dorsey followed a twitter account, @bigtechalert, which exists only to report on the following and unfollowing activities of CEOs of tech companies,” Inc. reported, before adding shortly afterward that “Dorsey unfollowed Mark Zuckerberg, which was promptly reported by BigTechAlert.”
When BigTechAlert tweeted about this, Twitter’s official Communications account tweeted an emoji of a goat.
It should be noted that the Mark Zuckerberg account, using the Twitter handle “@finkd” is neither verified nor particularly active, with its most recent tweet posted in 2012. The account is, however, followed by Facebook’s official Twitter account.
Even so, could Dorsey be signaling something with this seemingly open display?
This is not the first time Dorsey has parted ways with Zuckerberg in 2019. Controversy erupted after Facebook allowed a Trump campaign ad critical of former Vice President Joe Biden, which was banned by CNN, and Facebook announced that it would not fact-check paid political campaign ads.
Zuckerberg and his company were unsurprisingly met with pushback from the liberal media and Democrats, also receiving what could be considered subtle barbs from other Big Tech leaders.
Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey proclaimed on Oct. 30 that the platform would stop all political advertising going forward. “We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought,” he tweeted before adding later in his thread “While internet advertising is incredibly powerful and very effective for commercial advertisers, that power brings significant risks to politics, where it can be used to influence votes to affect the lives of millions.” Later, Twitter Legal, Policy and Trust & Safety Lead Vijaya Gadde would clarify that the social media giant would allow for some “cause-based ads” it still thinks are important.
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel also chimed in, proclaiming in November that “We subject all advertising to review, including political advertising.” He continued, saying, “I think what we try to do is create a place for political ads on our platform, especially because we reach so many young people and first-time voters we want them to be able to engage with the political conversation, but we don’t allow things like misinformation to appear in that advertising.”
As Inc. summarized in its coverage, while outsiders can not tell for sure what Dorsey meant to say by unfollowing the functionally dormant Zuckerberg Twitter account, “[w]hat we do know is that the rivalry between the two seems to be escalating. And, whether his move was a playful joke or some serious shade, Dorsey seemingly wanted us all to know exactly what he was doing.”
