Boo hoo. Don't be mean to advertisers

Silicon Valley’s belief in unbridled free speech doesn’t stand one simple test. You cannot comment on ads on their platforms. You cannot disrupt their cash cows.

Platform owners know that engagement on their platforms is driven by tension and conflict; by people who take on a different persona online to the way they act when in-person. While it’s true to say that not all social media are just cesspits of rage all the time, many people have been driven away as active participants, either lurking as spectators or withdrawing completely.

People are incredibly tribal. Over the past 20 years or so we’ve experimented by placing all the tribes in a handful of arenas with very mixed results. Moderators, umpires, referees and social mores left the scene as it’s really costly to maintain civility in digital social spaces. So gloves off and no rules became the rule. It was held up as a noble mission. All hail free speech.

It’s not free speech, it’s hypocrisy

This post isn’t a comment on the nature of free speech (but my belief is that it’s never without consequences), it’s a comment on utter hypocrisy.

I can say almost anything I want online in response to other people, but this same “engagement mechanism” isn’t available to me when it comes to adverts on the platform. And that’s important because as ads become worse and worse because generative ai makes it cheaper to make ads and people don’t have to observe any kind of regulation I find myself wanting to call out some pretty dodgy selling techniques or at least lampoon them. But surprise surprise, that is off limits. Nothing must be allowed to interfere with advertisers. And don’t you dare think about a boycott.

Get back in that arena, gladiator and leave our cash cow alone.