Trying To Monetize Bigots Is A Great Way To Go Broke

Business Models

from the if-they're-shitty-to-everyone-else,-they'll-be-shitty-to-you dept

Lots of people thought they could create a better Twitter after they (incorrectly) assumed Twitter was violating their First Amendment rights (lol) by refusing to host their Nazi-adjacent banter.

A handful of people mistook froth for cream and decided they’d welcome the worst of the worst social media users. Shortly after that, they realized they’d made a horrible mistake. Their networks were inundated with the people other social media platforms no longer wished to cater to: the sort of people most regular people wouldn’t associate with.

The assumption was that these “persecuted” asshats would pay good money to remain on any social media network or that there would be some rush of advertisers who really wanted to reach these asshats. The heads of these Twitter offshoots (but, you know, for Nazis) assumed these assholes would put their money where their worthless mouths were.

And, time after time, the heads of these social media offshoots were brutally informed that policing user-generated content is difficult. They also learned cops were very interested in their hideous user bases. And, finally, they learned it’s extremely difficult to convert online anger to profitable business models.

That brings us to Ryan Coyne, the man (very temporarily, it seems) in control of alt-right Twitter clone Parler. Parler began its run by proclaiming itself to be the new host of total freedom of speech. Shortly thereafter, it realized that refusing to perform content moderation meant it REALLY needed to engage in content moderation. Shortly after that, it realized social media services have an obligation to engage with law enforcement when users start issuing the sort of threats that generate federal charges.

Having been disabused of all of his preconceptions about social media, content moderation, free speech, and the impossibility of monetizing a particularly reprehensible user base, Coyne has decided to divest himself of the albatross he very recently purchased, as Mike Masnick recently covered here at Techdirt.

The money quote is this:

“No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business any more,” Arlington, Va.-based digital media company Starboard said in announcing Friday that it had acquired Parler.

While I will always be a fan of schadenfreude and the belated realization that catering to the worst people in the world is seldom profitable, I do, at least, tip my hat to Coyne’s acceptance of the fact that catering to “conservatives” (you know the ones I mean) will never make him rich.

Nor do I want to step on Mike’s toes by revisting something covered last week at this site. But I do want to pound home the point being made by Parler’s new “owner,” as well as the internet at large. Coyne (and his company, Starboard) have realized catering to degenerates is never going to generate profit.

But he’s an anomaly. There’s a nation full of grifters who believe mouth-breathers so utterly abhorrent even conservative-coddling social media platforms ejected them might be worth at least some money… right up until they realize they’re spending their online time interacting with people as stupid as they are.

If only the “conservatives” Parler catered to were this self-aware. If they were, they might have realized that their unhinged, bigoted presence on any social media network made private companies less profitable. Alas, all they care about is having a megaphone for their bullshit, provided that megaphone is placed directly in the ears of the libs they want to own.

People went out of their way to create echo chambers for bigots only to find out these people aren’t really interested in interacting with their own kind. Once the unwilling recipients of their hatred were subtracted from the equation, they swiftly lost interest, and took their wallets with them.

Anyone can see this is the reality so-called conservatives are unable to confront: they are people who cannot be monetized, no matter how may faux boycotts of “woke” companies they pretend to engage in or how many times they swear their fealty to companies willing to swim around in their respective sewers with them.

And it means nothing that the most powerful people in the nation — federal politicians willingly leaning into the embrace of white nationalists and other fans of fascism — have expressed their support for “alternative” social media platforms. The ones still used by most people refuse to coddle extremists, whether they’re calling for the death of America because ISIS said so, or because Trump said so. Selling to bigots still isn’t big business, no matter what bigots may want to believe.

Everyone knows their money isn’t good here. Even more, they know they don’t even have the money — good or bad — to put where their outsized mouths are. RIP, fuckheads. You get what you pay for. And you pricks aren’t paying for shit. So when you start complaining you’re being “silenced” by “liberal” sites, at least have the balls to acknowledge that no one — not even your peers — feel you’re worth listening to.

And the supposedly “smartest person in any room anywhere” — the current owner/befouler of Twitter — hopefully realizes this. Not even the worst people on earth are willing to pay for the privilege of hanging out with the worst people on earth. If you want to run an exclusive club catering to neo-Nazis and the people that love them, just know that it’s always going to be an act of charity.

Filed Under: bigotry, content moderation, elon musk, harassment, hatred, ryan coyne, social media
Companies: parler, starboard, twitter