This week, @expensify’s CEO emailed the company’s entire user base urging them to vote Biden.
Normally, I love seeing companies take a stand, but I would have ultimately advised against this move. Here’s why I think this email was a step too far:
1. People often sign up w/ their emails to SaaS services to kick the tires and agree to receive occasional marketing emails and company news.
However this time, they received an unsolicited political endorsement in their inbox – not what they signed up for.
2. You never want to tell people what to do.
An affirmation of your own beliefs? Fine. A political endorsement from a company? Toeing the line. Telling people how they should feel and who they should vote for? That is crossing it. Nobody wants to be told what to do.
3. Here’s Barrett shitting on “ANTIFA” as “totally unacceptable violent campaign” on @Expensify’s community forum.
Does that mean @Expensify is officially against antifascism? I ask because I assume Barrett wants support from people like me, and I am definitely antifascist.
4. Barrett is clearly not even educated on the issues he’s claims to be invested in.
If you’re going to tell people what the correct vote for democracy is, you should know that the idea that “ANTIFA is violence” is part of Trump’s disinformation machine.
5. Honestly, Barrett could have used his personal email list, social media, etc. for his endorsement. He could have contributed to a PAC or a GOTV campaign.
He would have still received media attention w/o the deep discomfort would-be supporters - including me - are feeling.
Conflating your ill-researched personal views with your company’s is not the way to go.
Watching this @expensify situation only makes me appreciate @hotjar more: they took a stand against Trump & received unanimous support from customers & the public. 👇🏼
This is part of a larger pattern of @Shopify funding extremism & domestic terrorism in the U.S.
The company is still funneling cash to Super Fun Happy America, the white nationalist group behind Boston’s “Straight Pride Parade” even after I flagged it last month.
IAS claims that 60% consumers hold brands accountable for the environment in which their ads appear. There's an easy fix to this: block all low quality content. IAS doesn't do this bc they make more $$ by charging you per scan - even on the site they know are shitty.
I have no doubt seeing a brand appear in a "positive/neutral sentiment" environment helps, but what happens when your brand safety technology marks white nationalist websites as "positive/neutral"?
CONFIRMED: @Cloudflare is protecting the Proud Boys’ website.
Let’s talk about CEO @eastdakota, whose MO is being a “free speech absolutist” until he cracks under public pressure — and he always does.
After The Daily Stormer/Andrew Anglin published an article glorifying the death of Heather Heyer, @Google and @GoDaddy dropped his hosting immediately. He then went straight to @Cloudflare, which is a *big defender* of "free speech" no matter what.
So we went after him HARD.
Someone had just *died* but @Cloudflare stayed silent. Then on August 15th - 3 days after the rally - they released this statement saying they planned to keep serving The Daily Stormer.
I can only imagine the amount of pressure @eastdakota faced over the next 24 hours...