Expensify's CEO emailed 10M customers urging them to vote for Biden

#1

Post by valuegram » Fri, Oct 23, 2020, 10:49 AM UTC

Expensify's CEO emailed 10M customers urging them to vote for Biden
businessinsider.com

Re: Expensify's CEO emailed 10M customers urging them to vote for Biden

#2

Post by PeekPoke » Fri, Oct 23, 2020, 10:55 AM UTC

Appalling interference in the election by yet another Tech giant. Why isn't this regulated?

Re: Expensify's CEO emailed 10M customers urging them to vote for Biden

#3

Post by nodex-alex » Fri, Oct 23, 2020, 11:27 AM UTC

so?

Why does it matter who emailed who, everyone is entitled to their opinion and entitield to share that opinion.

All the snowflakes going on about inteference ... this is not inteference, this is a company doing what it thinks is best for an election, not a country, not a government, a COMPANY.

Re: Expensify's CEO emailed 10M customers urging them to vote for Biden

#4

Post by Grustaf » Fri, Oct 23, 2020, 11:53 AM UTC

PeekPoke wrote: post #2

Appalling interference in the election by yet another Tech giant. Why isn't this regulated?

I don't agree with his alarmism and think it was stupid to send it, but why would it be regulated?

I think this is very different from Facebook or Twitter skew feeds in favour of some political cause.

First of all they are essentially public utilities, they shouldn't regulate speech as long as it's legal.

Secondly they do it without people's knowledge. David Barret's embarrassing email is completely honest and open.

Re: Expensify's CEO emailed 10M customers urging them to vote for Biden

#5

Post by dbbk » Fri, Oct 23, 2020, 12:02 PM UTC

PeekPoke wrote: post #2

Appalling interference in the election by yet another Tech giant. Why isn't this regulated?

Is this sarcasm or a genuine question? Endorsements aren't interference.

Re: Expensify's CEO emailed 10M customers urging them to vote for Biden

#6

Post by ahpearce » Fri, Oct 23, 2020, 12:05 PM UTC

Grustaf wrote: post #4

PeekPoke wrote: post #2

Appalling interference in the election by yet another Tech giant. Why isn't this regulated?

I don't agree with his alarmism and think it was stupid to send it, but why would it be regulated? I think this is very different from Facebook or Twitter skew feeds in favour of some political cause. First of all they are essentially public utilities, they shouldn't regulate speech as long as it's legal. Secondly they do it without people's knowledge. David Barret's embarrassing email is completely honest and open.

Seems like a lot of people screaming about this sort of thing are the same people that support Citizens United. I don't see how they're much different. Free speech is free speech, whether or not you have access to an email list of 10m.

Re: Expensify's CEO emailed 10M customers urging them to vote for Biden

#7

Post by DerpyBaby123 » Fri, Oct 23, 2020, 12:17 PM UTC

PeekPoke wrote: post #2

Appalling interference in the election by yet another Tech giant. Why isn't this regulated?

Tech giant? Ive never seen a reference to FAANGE

Re: Expensify's CEO emailed 10M customers urging them to vote for Biden

#8

Post by HappySweeney » Fri, Oct 23, 2020, 1:02 PM UTC

PeekPoke wrote: post #2

Appalling interference in the election by yet another Tech giant. Why isn't this regulated?

"Interference" in this context is generally reserved for foreign actors. Isn't this CEO American? If so, how is this not a simple exercise of free political speech?

That being asked, while I agree with the message, I don't believe sending it was a good idea. It likely won't move the needle at all (most everyone has made up their mind), and potentially alienates Trump-supporting customers.

Re: Expensify's CEO emailed 10M customers urging them to vote for Biden

#9

Post by biolurker1 » Fri, Oct 23, 2020, 1:39 PM UTC

PeekPoke wrote: post #2

Appalling interference in the election by yet another Tech giant. Why isn't this regulated?

Total annihilation is possible for the first time ever if Trump remains. Seriously. That's why scientific American, NY times and many others for the first time in history took sides.

Re: Expensify's CEO emailed 10M customers urging them to vote for Biden

#10

Post by Sodman » Fri, Oct 23, 2020, 1:47 PM UTC

This is the same guy who said "We don't hire .NET developers"[0], so he clearly has no problem going on incendiary rants that make people angry.

While I personally agree with this particular message, it's entirely inappropriate to send it over this channel. Especially considering most end-users, such as myself, aren't paying customers, but are employees of paying customers. I doubt this is going to trigger enough uproar in any tech company to have them switch their expense reporting software, but it does set a dangerous precedent. Are representatives from Jira and Asana going to start e-mailing me asking me to vote a certain way in my state elections?

If we don't push back against this, it will become the norm, and we'll have to deal with a cacophony of e-mails with voting directions from businesses every cycle. If you thought GDPR e-mails are bad, this will be much worse.

[0] https://blog.expensify.com/2011/03/25/ceo-friday-why-we-dont...