Fox Business reports Twitter is launching a “charm offensive with conservatives”

Charlie Gasparino: Twitter is “meeting with conservative media types” and “with GOP lawmakers”

From the August 13 edition of Fox Business' Countdown to the Closing Bell:

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CHARLIE GASPARINO (FOX BUSINESS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT): Here's what we know from Twitter, and I find this story fascinating for a lot of reasons, particularly when you think of political bias on social media, the rub is that Twitter, that Facebook -- particularly Twitter -- is anti-conservative. There's a huge anti-conservative bias. [Twitter CEO] Jack Dorsey is a Silicon Valley liberal. They shadow ban certain conservative voices. They block or eliminate other conservative voices.

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OK so conservatives will say there's a bias. I can tell you right now that Twitter is looking to fight that bias. What we do know from my sources inside the company, from my sources just around the media world, is that they are basically launching a charm offensive with conservatives. They are meeting with conservative media types. I'm not going to say who but they are meeting with them, they're reaching out with them. They are meeting with GOP lawmakers. They are trying to tell the conservative pundit base that Twitter is not anti-conservative, that the steps they take, they take it equally, and they value conservative thought on the medium.

Now why does this matter for Twitter? Well if you look at the last time Twitter stock went down, I'm sure it's up a little bit today, correct? ... It got crushed about two weeks ago. Remember when Facebook got crushed, Twitter got crushed. Why is that? Because they're losing users. The users are -- their monthly users went down dramatically. And that's how they essentially sell themselves. They have to keep users up in order to sell the ads to get the money flowing into -- because basically all the advertising metrics on Twitter is based on user growth. If you can't keep the user growth going, well guess what, their ad model falls apart. It's not going to be a $52 stock, no offense. 

One way to keep that user growth up is essentially to basically have conservatives and Republicans use the medium, as they do, as much as everybody else.

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Conservatives will opt out of it if they don't feel welcome. And they'll opt in to something else. Somebody else will get some -- somebody else will create a conservative Twitter. They know that, which is why they're doing it. They're not doing this because Jack Dorsey likes conservatives, because in his heart of heart he probably doesn't. Listen, he's a nice guy, I'm not saying anything wrong with him, but he's a liberal. He's a Silicon Valley liberal. He's doing it because keeping conservatives in the fold, engaged, on Twitter, is a way that he's going to make money. 

We should also point out this. It's kind of interesting. Liberals dominate the mainstream media as you know.

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Social media was a way for conservatives to combat that. It was an alternative for them. And I think Dorsey knows this, based on what I understand from my reporting. He knows that if you basically create a situation where their environment is not welcoming to conservatives, conservatives will find something else to go to as they have done repeatedly during -- there's a reason why certain newspapers don't attract a lot of conservative viewership or readership.

Related:

NY Magazine: Twitter Is Not ‘Shadow Banning’ Republicans

The Verge: Why Twitter should ignore the phony outrage over “shadow banning”

Previously:

Sean Hannity thanks Jack Dorsey and Twitter for sticking up for Alex Jones

RNC chairwoman joins Fox & Friends to rail against non-existent censorship on Twitter

This data conclusively debunks the myth of conservative censorship on Facebook