Advertising media expert Mark Douglas told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith” that the Capitol violence perpetrated by a crowd of President Donald Trump’s supporters is a “rocket” for the advertising businesses of social media companies.
“Political turmoil increases engagement on social media, and right or wrong, which generates more revenue for Facebook and Twitter,” said Douglas, founder and CEO of adtech Steelhouse. “Even if there are brands that decide to pause their advertising because of concerns about brand safety, the increase in revenue more than makes up for it. This can be a challenging time for social media censorship, but it is a rocket for your business. advertising. “
In the third quarter, Facebook earned more than $ 21 billion from ad revenue and Twitter, $ 808 million. Average Facebook revenue per user was $ 7.89, while average Twitter revenue per user was $ 4.30.
Several social media platforms expelled Trump from his websites after he incited a crowd of his supporters to invade the United States Capitol in an attempt to reverse his electoral defeat.
Jim Anderson is a social media expert and CEO of SocialFlow, an optimization platform that publishes content to major social media channels. He told “The News with Shepard Smith” that the near-unanimity of the action was “impressive”, but noted that “the day when social media companies decided that there is more they could do to police Trump’s behavior was also the same day that President Trump supporters attacked and occupied the US Capitol. “
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted that both social media sites have banned Trump’s account from posting at least for the remainder of his term and potentially “indefinitely”.
“We believe that the risks of allowing the president to continue using our service during this period are simply too great,” wrote Zuckerberg.
Anderson explained that Wednesday’s violence is resonating on Facebook in a way that previous incidents did not.
“It can also be an indication of the growing concern that comes from Facebook’s employee base. Any company ignores its employees at their own risk,” said Anderson.
On Wednesday, Facebook officials asked to remove Trump from the platform on an internal message board. In June, hundreds of Facebook employees staged a “virtual strike” in protest against the company’s policies regarding the president’s posts.
Douglas, however, said the most interesting thing about Zuckerberg’s statement was the recognition of Facebook’s impact on the political process and society as a whole.
“The days when Facebook was thought to be just a channel seem to be over and Facebook’s desire to editorialize content on Facebook seems to be in full swing,” said Douglas.
Twitter also blocked Trump’s account for 12 hours on Wednesday. A spokesman said the social media giant is still assessing subsequent action.
Anderson explained that the media plays an important role in expanding the president’s Twitter account.
“President Trump’s ‘social media superpower’ was never tweets per se – it was the ability to get the media to cover what he tweeted,” said Anderson. “He won’t be able to replicate that in Parler. It’s just not big enough, diverse enough or seen by journalists enough to move the needle like Twitter does.”
Douglas added that President Trump’s access to Twitter is “irrelevant” and echoed Anderson’s feelings.
“The real power is the amplification of your message by the media,” said Douglas. “They are the ones who really have power here and that is already evident today [Thursday] where your comments are simply posted by others. “
Amazon’s Twitch, a gaming-centric streaming platform, has disabled the president’s account. Reddit says it is taking action on reported violations of its content policies, which prohibit inciting violence. On a retweet of NAACP, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian described the protesters as “domestic terrorists”.
Trump’s verified Snapchat account has been blocked indefinitely. Last June, Snap stopped promoting the president’s content on its Discover feature. Shopify took down two of the president’s campaign e-commerce sites.
YouTube says it is stepping up its application of electoral fraud charges against Trump and others. He also withdrew the president’s speech to protesters, as well as several additional videos that promoted violence or included people with firearms.
At the Save America rally on Wednesday, Trump told thousands of viewers in the nation’s capital that “we will never give in” and promoted a show of strength from his supporters.
“What I find interesting is that many companies piled up at the last minute – should I have attacked the Capitol dome to take action?” said Douglas.