The social network has turned on Donald Trump, the last example being Twitter’s abrupt and unexpected 11th-hour move to tear up a multimillion dollar contract to let the Republican presidential candidate use eye-catching emojis on campaign debate tweets.
Weeks of negotiations and work, and a signed contract with Twitter were junked two days before the second presidential debate when the company and President Jack Dorsey yanked the deal claiming legal issues over the two emojis, one critical of Hillary Clinton.
One of the Trump emojis rejected by Twitter.
It was the second time the social media giant canceled a deal to launch new debate-related Trump emojis at the last minute.
Twitter said that the emojis, one reading “#CROOKED HILLARY” followed by a bag of money, didn’t provide enough “transparency” to show they were from the Trump campaign, like the required disclaimer on political ads.
Another rejected emoji.
However, a top Federal Election Commission official told Secrets that the agency does not regulate emojis and that such transparency isn’t required on tweets. And Twitter itself took a lead in launching Republican and Democratic emojis for the political conventions.
“While Twitter claims to be a venue that promotes the free exchange of ideas, it’s clear that it’s leadership’s left wing ideology literally trumps that,” charged Sean Spicer, chief strategist and communications director at the Republican National Committee.
Twitter’s move, coming after weeks of negotiations and a trail of email approvals about the emojis — oddly influential in the 2016 election — have led GOP officials to claim that it reeked of anti-Trump politics.
#MakeAmericaOneAgain pic.twitter.com/wYTFh5huK7
— GOP Convention (@GOPconvention) July 22, 2016
Twitter emojis OK for the conventions.
It follows other social network assaults on Trump.
Buzzfeed, for example, flip-flopped on a $1.3 million deal for ad reservations on its site for the Trump campaign.
And Facebook executives have written millions of dollars of donations to Democrats and allegedly skewed its news feed to bolster Clinton. Politico on Monday, for example, reported that co-founder Dustin Moskovitz contributed $35 million to Democrats, a surprise since he hadn’t coughed up donations before.
A Twitter spokesman said that it was being fair with all campaigns on the issue of emojis. In a statement, the spokesman said:
“We have had specific discussions with several political organizations, including the Trump campaign, regarding branded emojis as part of broad advertising campaigns on Twitter. We believe that political advertising merits a level of disclosure and transparency that branded political emojis do not meet, and we ultimately decided not to permit this particular format for any political advertising.”
GOP officials, however, said that Twitter employees told them the Clinton campaign wasn’t working with the company for special emojis.
Republican officials said that they began talking with Twitter before the debates began and made a $5 million commitment for emoji branding as part of a “promoted trend for max exposure.”
While the emojis were OK’d for the first debate tweets, they were canceled by Twitter at the last minute over claims the emoji suggested wrongdoing by Clinton.
So the campaign made changes to the image and words for the second debate and a contract was signed. But Twitter reneged two days before the Oct. 9 debate, deciding that the emoji’s needed a disclaimer.
“They apologized over and over and offered a new incentives package for us to keep our trend that was a day away. We told them it was BS and real reason was political,” said a GOP official.
A Twitter official rejected charges of political bias, noting that it has done nothing to interfere with Trump’s nonstop use of the social network.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
