Will Twitter CEO Dorsey’s Admission that Twitter is Left Leaning Affect It's Stock?

In a recent interview with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Saturday, Dorsey fully admits that Twitter employees are majority left-leaning. This response came as conservatives have been openly accusing the social media platform for discrimination.

But how does this affect the stocks of Twitter?

Does shadowbanning of conservatives make the stock less attractive?

During the interview, the question was raised about shadow banning. Many conservative users have sent criticism to the platform revolving around shadow banning. But while all of this is happening Twitter has been reluctant in removing far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones who has been removed from various platforms already including Youtube, Apple Music, and Spotify.

This move can be traced back to what Dorsey said in the interview. Even though the staff is certainly more left leaning he asks the questions “are the staff taking action due to a political ideology or viewpoint? We aren’t. Period.”

Dorsey further emphasizes that by stating that the company looks at policy as opposed to what’s being posted. This makes sense seeing as Dorsey banned Alex Jones for only a week after receiving several reports about specific tweets and a Periscope video that Alex Jones posted inciting violence which goes against the terms of use.

As far as overall attractiveness, this doesn’t seem to be a determining factor. The only recent drop in stock occurred in July revolving around Cambridge Analytica in which Twitter was being monitored. Furthermore Dorsey is expected to testify in September to the Senate Intelligence Committee revolving around the Russia election interference and potential subpoena from the shadow banning and discrimination allegations on the platform.

Should a publicly traded company show such overt bias?

While Twitter’s CEO is taking a rather neutral stance, it’s quite clear there is a bias to some degree. We may get more clarification once the hearing starts. Regardless, as neutral as platforms try to be, they are still run by people and people will always have opinions. Whether they are left or right is up to what they believe in.

Of course many companies will try to stay as neutral as they can be. Especially in terms of social media it can be easy to tell when certain actions are done what sort of side they prefer. At the same time, it’s difficult to stay neutral or for people to think companies are neutral as actions and words can be misinterpreted.

At the end of the day, people will have biases and even the technologies that we make will have biases over time. Whether a company should freely express that is a matter of debate.

Will conservatives and the free market find an alternative?

Of course there is. While Donald Trump Jr. encourages individuals to find other alternatives for social media, the social media industry is still vast with many platforms emerging. To say they are left or right leaning is difficult to say.

That being said, the hearing that happened in September will shed a lot of light into this situation further revolving around corporate behavior, especially around politics.