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1482510cookie-checkBlockTheProfits Targets Advertisers On Twitter Until They Ban “Nazis”, “Racists”, “Abusers”
Features
2019/06

BlockTheProfits Targets Advertisers On Twitter Until They Ban “Nazis”, “Racists”, “Abusers”

BlockTheProfits is a new Twitter account that was started up in early June, 2019 in order to organize block lists of corporate advertisers who use Twitter. The idea is that they want to spread the list far and wide so that average Twitter users who use the list will no longer see advertisements from those brands on Twitter as a way to block Twitter’s profits. The goal is to hurt Twitter’s advertising profits until they ban “Nazis”, “Racists”, and “Abusers”.

The mission statement of the account is pretty simple. It reads…

“To force twitter to ban nazis, racists & abusers – hit them where it hurts; profits. Sign up to the website to block!”

The account links to a Blocktogerher.org page where there’s a block list of advertisers promoting their products on Twitter. This includes major brands like Microsoft 365, Done Deal, Web Summit, Ford, IWEA, Nintendo UK, Degree, BET, Amazon Publishing, Yahoo Sports, Sega, SAP, Visa UK, and GameSpot to name just a few.

They published a tweet thread on June 8th, 2019 explaining how the system works and what their goals are with this new block list.

So basically it’s like a list of demands. If Twitter doesn’t ban or “moderate” their platform of “Nazis”, “Racists”, and “Abusers”, then they will continue to expand the list and block Twitter’s advertisers.

The interesting thing about it is that they’re not just targeting standard capitalistic organizations and businesses. They’re also going after who some might consider to be ideological allies, too. In a separate chain posted on June 8th, the account explained that this was going to be “tough” because they would have to block some organizations that they support, such as Planned Parenthood.

It’s an interesting conundrum because right now the list is pretty small, and they only have 645 followers as of the writing of this article. If the follower list expands and more people begin to block the ads en masse, then then there could be problems for Twitter in the long run. 1,000 people blocking ads isn’t that big of a deal, but 10,000 would start to make a dent. 100,000 would affect large swathes of targeted demographics. 1 million would likely mean that Twitter would have to do something to address the issue.

However, we’re not there yet and for now it’s just a block list being developed to block ads until Twitter kowtows to their demands for better moderation. The question is: how do you determine who is a “Nazi”? And by what criteria are they judging “racism”? And on what grounds are they labeling people as “abusers”? It’s all ill-defined and poorly structured criteria for labels that are essentially going to be thrown around to get ideological opponents deplatformed faster than they’re currently being deplatformed.

While follower count is low right now, it’s an outfit worth keeping an eye on as more people begin to follow the cause.

(Thanks for the news tip Razgriz Reborn)

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