Former New York City Mayor and recently destroyed Democratic debate candidate Michael Bloomberg is looking to pay some 500 “deputy digital organizers” $2,500 a month to promote him on their social media feeds.
Look, before we go any further, the way my bills are set up, and the way that my federal student aid people keep calling me, I just hope that y’all won’t judge me if you randomly start seeing tweets supporting Bloomberg’s campaign. I mean, seriously, after that debate it doesn’t matter if America’s queens, Rihanna and Beyoncé, stump for Bloomberg; he ain’t got a chance in hell of winning the nomination. I was going to say Jay Z, but he may have already taken a large sum of money to move the conversation beyond “stop and frisk.”
According to Newsweek—which has a subscription to get behind The Wall Street Journal’s paywall—the billionaire’s campaign crew is looking for folks who can work 30 hours a week to promote Bloomberg on their social media to all their online friends.
So it turns out that the outreach is limited to California, which is holding its presidential primary on Super Tuesday, March 3, but if it works, look for Bloomberg to push this program nationwide.
I can totally do this. In fact, here’s a sample tweet: “I left the house without my wallet, and thanks to Mike Bloomberg’s stop and frisk, I was harassed by a cop who threw me up against a wall, and I learned before making it a block from the house that I didn’t have any ID. Thanks, Mike Bloomberg!”
Russia is currently looking at stealing the 2020 election, and Bloomberg is looking to buy his way into the White House by plotting on the middle class with his $2,500 (amazing program!) “let’s be friends” incentive.
Newsweek notes that the move by the Bloomberg campaign happened after Bloomberg got skull-crushed at the Democratic debate in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
The mag also reports that the push for citizen references of candidates is being “aided by a mobile application called Outvote, which is funded by a Democratic technology and investment organization known as Higher Ground Labs.
“Our app allows anyone to plug into a Democratic campaign and see which of their friends are registered voters in the district and coordinate SMS outreach with the campaign for event invites...social sharing, fundraising, and getting out the vote,” Outvote says online.
It’s unclear how Facebook would handle this paid campaign push as the social media site “tracks ad spending and makes influencers label their sponsored posts,” Newsweek reports.
“Branded content is different from advertising, but in either case we believe it’s important people know when they’re seeing paid content on our platforms,” Facebook told Newsweek. “That’s why we have an Ad Library where anyone can see who paid for an ad and why we require creators to disclose any paid partnerships through our branded content tools.
“After hearing from multiple campaigns, we agree that there’s a place for branded content in political discussion on our platforms. We’re allowing US-based political candidates to work with creators to run this content, provided the political candidates are authorized and the creators disclose any paid partnerships through our branded content tools.”
Bloomberg wasn’t trying to hear that he’s just a billionaire who paid his way into the conversation.
“I’m doing exactly the same thing they’re doing, except that I am using my own money,” he said in an interview with CBS This Morning last December.
“They’re using somebody else’s money, and those other people expect something from them. Nobody gives you money if they don’t expect something, and I don’t want to be bought.”