CMO Today: Facebook Announces ‘Clear History’ Tool, Dating Service; Google’s Culture of Nonstop Debate

As more scrutiny has been poured on Facebook’s data-collection practices in recent months, questions keep popping up about the information Facebook has on you, including the non-Facebook sites you visit and whether you have adequate control over that data collection. At F8, Facebook had an answer: It’s introducing a “clear history” tool that will give users the ability to see and control the data Facebook receives about them from outside apps and websites that use its ads and analytics tools. It’s hard to know how many users will rush to clear that data–Facebook previously said it hadn’t seen a groundswell of users changing their privacy settings following the Cambridge Analytica scandal. And even if they do, Facebook says it’ll still provide aggregated analytics to apps and websites. Noah Mallin, Wavemaker’s head of experience, content and sponsorships, tells me “clear history” doesn’t necessarily mean this data won’t be usable for targeting, but it may mean advertisers need to work with other sources to get it and load it into the platform. “Overall, that could drive costs up, though it’s too early to say that would be so across the board,” Mr. Mallin said.

Blind Date

Here’s a new Facebook product I didn’t hear anyone asking for: One of the big announcements at F8 on Tuesday was a new dating feature, which Mr. Zuckerberg said would foster “real, long-term relationships—not just hookups.” No word yet on whether the service will be free or whether it’ll be a free feature designed to boost engagement (pun unintended) and presumably show more ads. Rival dating companies (and Twitter users) scoffed at the idea of Facebook Dating. “We’re surprised at the timing given the amount of personal and sensitive data that comes with this territory,” Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg said. “Their product could be great for U.S.-Russia relationships,” said Joey Levin, the chief executive of IAC, Match Group’s majority owner. The joke may be on them, though, as Facebook already has 200 million users who identify as single on the platform, so attracting new users probably won’t be as much of a problem as it would be for a new dating service. Match’s share price dropped 22% and IAC lost more than 17% on Tuesday.

Give Peace a Chance

Most workplaces will play host to the odd political debate between colleagues from time to time. But at Google, the environment has become “a virtual war zone of debate over all manner of social and political beliefs” WSJ reports, in this fascinating deepdive into the culture at the search-and-advertising giant. That fractious culture, of course, was brought to public attention last summer when Google fired software engineer James Damore, who wrote an internal memo entitled “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber” that suggested men are better suited for tech jobs than women, which went viral inside the company. Google’s difficulty curating the different views and voices within its own empire comes at the same time the company is trying to define, for billions of users and thousands of advertisers, the types of content that should be allowed on its search results and YouTube. As internal political arguments become more of a distraction, people familiar with the matter say Google executives are drawing up a new set of guidelines about what can and can’t be said on its internal forums.

A Design For Life

When the Snapchat redesigned rolled out in November, Chief Executive Evan Spiegel warned that while it was for the best in the long term, there was a “strong likelihood” the new look would be “disruptive to our business in the short term.” He certainly got the second part of that prediction right. Snap reported a 54% rise in revenue to $230.7 million in its first quarter, missing analyst estimates and sending shares tumbling. That’s somewhat surprising considering the Olympics took place in the quarter. Snap added 4 million daily users in the quarter, falling about 3 million short of analysts’ expectations. On the call, Snap said it was transitioning its premium Lens and Filter ad products to a programmatic buying model, which is bringing the average order value down. But Pivotal Research senior analyst Brian Wieser posited in a research note that slower revenue growth was less about the transition to programmatic and more likely due to large advertisers, collectively, allocating smaller budgets to Snapchat over time.

Best of the rest

Here’s a rundown of all the possible outcomes to the ATT-Time Warner trial. A ruling will be announced on June 12. [WSJ]

Mark Zuckerberg said in a meeting with a group of news executives that the company is “essentially going to be losing money on political ads,” owing to the investment Facebook is making to avoid a repeat of the misinformation spread during the 2016 U.S. election. [BuzzFeed News]

At the same briefing, Mr. Zuckerberg also dismissed an idea proposed by media executives including The Wall Street Journal parent company News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch and BuzzFeed’s Jonah Peretti that Facebook should pay publishers for content in the same way cable networks pay carriage fees to program makers. “I’m not sure that makes sense,” Mr. Zuckerberg said. [Recode]

At its NewFront event Tuesday, Verizon’s Oath announced 10 new original series and a partnership with Samsung to distribute its content and native ads on Galaxy devices in the U.S. and some other global markets. [The Drum]

Condé Nast is launching over-the-top channels for its Wired, Bon Appetit and GQ brands that will be available on Apple TV, Roku and Amazon Fire. [Ad Age]

Disney’s big NewFront announcement was new food-focused editorial brand called Disney Eats, which will run on the Disney Digital Network. [Adweek]

Digital media company Studio71 announced a slate of original programming at its NewFront, including content from YouTube comedy duo Rhett Link and a renewal of “This Might Get,” the daily talk show from YouTube comedians Grace Helbig and Mamrie Hart. [Variety]

Emails show how app developers are encouraged by marketing firms to sell user data. [BuzzFeed News]

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Paul Ryan says Democratic leaders are threatening to take away all benefits from tax reform law

On “tax day,” U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan trumpeted what he said are some of the benefits — in addition to lower taxes — of the GOP tax reform signed into law in December 2017: Pay raises and bonuses for workers, and companies creating more jobs and bringing home money from overseas.

Then the Wisconsin Republican, speaking at an April 17, 2018 news conference, made an attack, saying:

Yet, Democratic leaders are still out there spreading doom and gloom. They call it crumbs. They talk about a dark cloud. And they are promising to take it all away.

Are they?

Pelosi comments

1. To back Ryan’s statement, his campaign staff cited an April 2018 website posting about Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader in the House. It carried this headline: “Pelosi: Democrats Will Repeal the GOP Tax Law When We Retake the House.”

But in the video clip that accompanies the article, Pelosi wasn’t that explicit.

Pelosi had been asked at a town hall meeting if Democrats win control of the House in the November 2018 elections, “will you rewrite the tax bill from scratch, or focus on reversing specific components?” She replied:

We’ll sit down at the table and say, What would be a tax bill that creates growth, that creates good-paying jobs, as it reduces the deficit?…We can do that, we must do that, in a bipartisan way. It’s not about chipping at this piece or that piece, it’s about a comprehensive look at what our tax policy should be for the future.

So, Pelosi said she would be willing to work with Republicans on overhauling, or overturning the law, in an unspecified way.

2. Two months earlier, Pelosi did use the word repeal in speaking about Democrats retaking control of the House. But she appeared to be joking, and also spoke of a bipartisan effort.

She was asked at a news conference: “You spoke earlier this week about how, if Democrats take back Congress, that you would want to work on a fair tax system. Tell us a little bit more about what you mean. Is that basically like a repeal and replace of the new tax law?”

Pelosi replied:

Well, it may have to be a replace and repeal (chuckles). Replace them (Republicans) and repeal the bill. No, (Rep. Joe Crowley) and Congresswoman Sanchez, they’re on the Ways and Means Committee and I’m going to defer to them on this. But we’ve always said, you can’t do this tax bill without having it being bipartisan. We want to recognize that perhaps we should lower the corporate rate; maybe that’s so, maybe not, what’s the case for it. But if you’re going to have sustainability in a tax reform, it has to be bipartisan.

3. Pelosi’s office, responding to Ryan’s claim, cited a Pelosi statement from a March 2018 news conference as being representative of what she has said on the subject.

After repeatedly calling the GOP reform a “tax scam” for helping the rich more than the middle class, she said:

We would have bipartisan, open hearings on how we go forward.  What’s the appropriate level of a corporate tax cut? How do we first and foremost empower financially the middle class and make that permanent, not treat them as second class people in our country?  Because we said for corporations it’s a permanent tax cut, for people it’s not permanent. And, again, it would be unifying. Unifying. It would be bipartisan, open, transparent, and unifying as we go forward to strengthen middle class tax cuts and to do so in a way that creates good paying jobs, promotes growth and reduces the deficit.

So, Pelosi has talked about a comprehensive review of taxes and alluded to repealing the GOP tax reform law.

But she has also talked about a corporate tax rate lower than what it was before the reform, and about maintaining tax breaks for the middle class.

Schumer comments

We also reviewed the statements of the Democratic leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer of New York.

1. At a March 2018 news conference about Democrats’ proposals for infrastructure projects, Schumer spoke about reversing only certain GOP tax reforms, saying:

Rather than cutting existing infrastructure projects to pay for a paltry program, we want to roll back the Republican tax giveaways to big corporations and the wealthy, and invest that money instead in job-creating infrastructure.

2. Schumer had gone further shortly after the tax bill’s passage, telling reporters, according to The Hill:

There are probably a small number of provisions we might not repeal. It certainly would need drastic overhaul aiming it at the middle class, not the wealthy and powerful.

3. But Schumer’s office told us Democrats only want to roll back provisions for the wealthy and some of those for corporations — but leave intact tax cuts for workers and the middle class.

A summary of the Democrats’ infrastructure proposal would, among other things, restore the top individual tax rate and the estate tax to what they were before the GOP tax reform law, and put the corporate tax rate at 25 percent, up from 21 percent under the GOP law.

Schumer emphasized the GOP tax cuts for the rich in saying about the Democratic alternative:

We want to roll back the Republican tax giveaways to big corporations and the wealthy and invest that money instead in job-creating infrastructure.

So, like Pelosi, Schumer has spoken about resetting the corporate tax rate to lower than it had been before the GOP reform law, but higher than where the reform law put it. Schumer’s emphasis has been on reversing tax breaks for the rich, not for scrapping the entire reform law.

Another leader

Ryan’s office also pointed out “tax day” remarks by U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley of New York, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. He didn’t threaten repeal of the GOP tax reform, but called on Republicans to do so, saying:

The Republican caucus needs to announce that it will repeal and replace this bill. This is the bill that needs to be repealed and replaced. They are focused on health care. Repeal this bill, my Republican colleagues.

Our rating

Ryan says that on the tax reform law, Democratic leaders “are promising to take it all away.”

Democratic leaders in Congress have been harshly critical of the law, and have talked about the need to repeal or at least review most of it. But the tax reform law also provides tax benefits to the middle class, which the Democratic leaders have indicated they want to keep.

For a statement that is partially accurate, our rating is Half True.

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