In September 5th of 2019 Twitter $TWTR (NYSE:TWTR) stock price on the New York Stock Exchange was at a high of 45.42; today, the stock price is at 32.44 and shows no signs of returning even to its previous weeks gains. Overall, Twitter has dropped by 13 since that September 5th day. One has to ask why?
Several main actions of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey come into review here: Dorsey’s meeting with President Donald J. Trump earlier in the year at The White House, his firm’s decision not to punish Trump for his attacking and offensive tweets, Twitter’s actions in punishing Trump critics, and the installation of a little-known policy that is called “platform manipulation and spam” on that same September month, but is used in a way that runs counter to Twitter’s own, posted policies.
First, Dorsey’s meeting with President Donald J. Trump was said to be “cordial” but no word regarding what was agreed to came from it. Trump has said Twitter as a company was “very discriminatory” and saying “they don’t treat me well as a Republican.” He then accused the company of “playing political games” and called on Congress to “get involved.” And that was before his meeting with Dorsey, the same day. Trump set the tone for what he expected from Twitter, and by a look at actions since then, got satisfaction.
Great meeting this afternoon at the @WhiteHouse with @Jack from @Twitter. Lots of subjects discussed regarding their platform, and the world of social media in general. Look forward to keeping an open dialogue! pic.twitter.com/QnZi579eFb
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2019
From the looks of things, the “open dialogue” with Trump was intimidating to Jack Dorsey and company.
First, the “platform manipulation and spam” policy was installed. To read it one comes away with the idea that Twitter has no policy that would encourage the actions it claims to abhor. Read:
Platform manipulation can take many forms and our rules are intended to address a wide range of prohibited behavior, including:
commercially-motivated spam, that typically aims to drive traffic or attention from a conversation on Twitter to accounts, websites, products, services, or initiatives;
inauthentic engagements, that attempt to make accounts or content appear more popular or active than they are; and
coordinated activity, that attempts to artificially influence conversations through the use of multiple accounts, fake accounts, automation and/or scripting.
Interesting, until one then learns that Twitter actively allows you to make more than one Twitter account. Read this doozy:
How to manage multiple accounts
If you have more than one Twitter account, it’s simple to add and access them from your Twitter for iOS or Android app, and on desktop, mobile.twitter.com, Twitter Lite, and Twitter for Windows.
How do I log in to more than one Twitter account at a time via desktop?
On the side menu, click your profile icon.
Choose the more iconor the plus icon
From here, you can Add an existing account.
Once you’ve added your account(s), you can toggle between them by clicking your profile icon, and then tapping the smaller, additional profile icon(s) next to the more icon
So, from that Twitter set up a situation where it’s punishing some users for actually doing something it openly encourages. Just the thing for those black Twitter folks who weren’t granted verified accounts. Twitter probably figures they aren’t fans of the President (which is wrong) and set up this hypocritical system that really should be against the law for any tech social media company to do. Oh, its more than okay to have more than one account on Twitter and open them up at the same time – until we decide we don’t like you. Then we impose General Order 66.
Gotcha! Right, Jack!
But, if that were not enough, then in November, Twitter bans political ads. Now, think about that. Trump is allowed to tweet his tail off, but no one can put up an ad to counter him? Wow.
According to Recode, Twitter’s head of legal Vijaya Gadde said “This is entirely new terrain,” in a call with reporters on Friday. She acknowledged that especially on the global level, Twitter has a lot of specifics to figure out, and that some areas will be subjective. “We’re also prepared that we’re going to make some mistakes, and we’re going to have to learn and improve this policy over time,” she said.
Well, the whole deal about “some areas will be subjective” is the problem, and its caused accounts, like mine, to be suspended on whim, and with made up reasons, and without presentation of evidence. Twitter would have to terminate its multiple account policy, but the truth is, that has driven the growth of Twitter’s user base – now, in an effort to please a President who’s been impeached, Twitter’s going all-out tech political thug.
In doing so, Twitter has actually caused its overall value to drop 13 in a short period of time, and then here comes the earnings report February 6th.
Twitter will wind up seeking a new CEO. Hey, Twitter Board of Directors, I’m running ZENNIE62MEDIA, but I can run Twitter too. Hire me to fix you.
Stay tuned.