Published. Meantime, facebook is making a big change to its ad business, announcing it will allow people to opt out of seeing political ads on facebook and instagram. Users will be able to mute electoral ads and ads on social issues as well. For more, i want to bring in purses and strategies founding partner, who was before that president obamas Reelection Campaign digital director. Teddy, good to have you back on the show. Facebook may the controversial decision to not factcheck political ads, not factcheck speech from politicians. What is your take on this now middle ground, saying you can turn off political ads if you dont want to see them . Teddy thanks for having me. I think the truth is it is not much of a middle ground. What its doing is putting the onus on the user to do the work. They are saying we wont provide any Fact Checking or any standards whatsoever on our platform, but you the user can click on a few buttons and hopped out if you make that decision. The thing i think that is really key is that advertising is a relatively small fraction of the content that a person encounters on facebook or instagram or twitter in a given session. They have made very clear they have no intention of doing anything about disinformation or hate speech or abuse on the organic content that is shared. This is them saying we are not doing anything about disinformation. If you dont like ads from politicians, whether or not they are truthful, you can opt out, but there is nothing preventing you from getting a piece of disinformation shared from you from a friend or neighbor. The core problem with the platform persists. Emily interesting to note this announcement about political ads is a footnote at the end of an oped on usa today written by mark zuckerberg. Where they were announcing a new Voter Registration campaign. Zuckerberg writing, for those of you that already made up your mind and want the election to be over, we hear you, so we are introducing the ability to turn off political ads and we will still remind you to vote. Zuckerberg saying their goal with this new voting Information Campaign is to get 4 Million People registered to vote. I wonder, that is great but are they missing the real problem . Teddy yeah, totally. Like you just hinted at, im glad they will register voters. I hope they register four million and more. I hope they do voting reminders, and let people know how to vote. This is an election where people want to vote by mail for the first time because of covid. I hope they contribute constructively to let people know how to do that, with the deadlines are. All that kind of stuff which can have a really big impact on whether people actually do it or not. Is a, i think advertising relatively small piece of the overall facebook ecosystem. They are letting you say i dont want to hear from donald trump, joe biden. But they are doing nothing about things you will hear organically from your friends, family, neighbors. I think it is important to note, they are doing nothing about the other actors on the political ecosystem that is not really campaigns or Interest Groups. For example, breitbart is orioussly a quite not right wing news website. They are not classified as a group, so they can still be on your feet. It essentially changes the makeup of the political content a person will receive on facebook or instagram. It does necessarily do anything about information. It probably doesnt do anything about disinformation. It allows a few uses to say i want to hear less from candidates themselves. I think its a problem. A problem for democracy, a problem for the whole political discourse if a truthful ad from joe biden a person can opt out of that, but a piece of disinformation from some crazy uncle, a person cannot opt out of that. You run the risk that you are actually worsening the overall mix of information and disinformation a person receives on facebook or instagram. Emily interesting. As a person who ran the digital side of president obamas Reelection Campaign, you know how important a platform like facebook is. Do you think this will materially impact the ability for president trump, Vice President joe biden to reach voters in this election . Teddy yes is the answer. It is going to be interesting to see how my people actually use this. If you look at facebook put out a blog post late last night where you explain how you actually go through the process of opting out. It is not the most intuitive thing. It is a couple of clicks. It is not going to be a big banner that says you can opt out. You have to find the button, find the menu of options. My guess is that not all many people avail themselves of it. It matters who does. I was talking to a friend earlier who said the kinds of people that campaigns desperately need to reach are the kind of people that are often most fed up with politics. If it is the case that the undecided voter or the demobilized voter who either campaign is going to try to be reaching, if it is the case they are the ones most likely to use the tool, that is a big deal for campaigns in those parties. With theso obsessed white house and understandably so given the person who is in it but it does not just affect donald trump and joe biden. This Effect People running for state house, this affects people running for dogcatcher, running for mayor. This could affect local Interest Groups that are trying to do something good in their community. Essentially, i think what its going to do is be a hamstring. Anybody who does not already have an audience. Donald trump will probably be just fine on facebook. Tens of millions of followers. Hes got a hold Disinformation Network supporting him from the u. S. And abroad. If you or someone whos inspired by the protest or fed up by the handling of covid19 and want to start something new and either run for office or start some policy initiative, a facebook ad is a huge part of the way you grow an audience and get traction. This will affect them too. This is not just about the big guys. Some of this will have a big effect on the little guys, the people really need to have every tool at their disposal when they think about how to grow. Emily speaking of the big guys, this could be the most critical election in our lifetime if it was not the last president ial election. Im curious what your thoughts are now on how president trump, how biden continued to reach voters and have their campaigns make an impact. We are seeing so much of trump right now and president biden, Vice President biden has not been breaking through. What are the chances that he can break through, especially given all of these changes continuing to happen in the Digital Ecosystem . Teddy i think one of the problems, one of the many problems with the Digital Ecosystem we have right now is it gives an advantage to have whoever is the most incendiary, whoever is the most emotional, whoever is the most provocative. People Pay Attention to Donald Trumps tweets because they are, in my opinion, nutty. You Pay Attention to something nutty the same way you Pay Attention to a car crash as you drive by it. Its very difficult for people who are urging certain kinds of moderation, people who are urging continuity, people who dignityng kindness and and empathy. Those are not the sort of grabbiest messages out there. The dynamic we have here in the states is reflected in country after country after country. This is something i have said many times. Wonle say that donald trump the internet. They also say modi wins the internet in india. They say that bolsonaro wins the internet in brazil. All of these people who happened to be farright, autocratic types, but it can happen on the far left too, they are people that had a posture of insurgency against an entrenched elite and peddling a message that appeals to people on facebook and they cannot find it in the local newspaper or their equivalent of cable news because it is not one they heard before. I think the problem for biden, coming back to the United States, is he is not saying a lot of stuff that is shocking. Hes not saying a lot of stuff that is usually incendiary. Im a democrat, but he saying a lot of stuff that is true and common sense. And appealing but lesso of a riveting way than a president that you cannot believe the u. S. President is saying. That is a structural problem that will keep him at a disadvantage on facebook, twitter, youtube, all of these platforms. Does not have all that much to do with advertising. It has to do with the core mechanics of how the algorithms promote content. More engaging, that people share more. That is a real advantage. Now, i think abide in campaign the Biden Campaign does not need to be in despair because their objective is not to get more twitter followers than donald trump or more retweets. They are out there to win an election. I think the internet will continue to be more of an optical than a benefit for them but that is when they have to overcome and i think there are other patterns to the white house than just the retweet path donald trump took a few years ago. Emily always interesting to get your thoughts on these issues. Teddy goff, former digital director of president obamas Reelection Campaign. Thank you so much for stopping by. After uber and lyft, San Francisco is coming for doordash in a new lawsuit. I will talk to the San Francisco dish attorney about that coming up district are turning coming up. This is bloomberg. Emily u. S. Stocks falling for the first time in four days after increasing concerns about rising covid19 case is around the world, overtaking the optimism about the economy reopening. I want to bring in Abigail Doolittle who has been following all of the market moves. Break it down for us. Abigail a different result than yesterday because yesterday there were virus concerns as well but the end of the day stocks pulled past those worries and finished prior. Today, stocks never got out of their own way. The s p 500 opened up about half a percent on midmorning news about texas hospitalization surge which sent stocks lower. Fluctuating. At the end of the day, mainly lower. The nasdaq 100, tech was one of twoout performers. Gaining, but the russell 2000, more domestic we oriented, really underperforming. Highlighting the concerns around the virus, down 1. 8 . There was a bid for bonds and a bid for the haven yen overall. Something to Pay Attention to. Typically we dont talk about the dow transports but over the last number of days, there has been a bullbear battle. The dow transports let on the way down back in january amid virus concerns. Transportations of goods and services really so sensitive to the virus, over the last five days, that index really underperforming. Telling you investors are very concerned about the virus and what it could do to the economy even if there is never a true shutdown once again. Emily interesting. Talk to us about what happened in tech stocks. Chips. Abigail chips outperformed. This is 5g hopes. Qualcomm getting a boost, saying cheaper phones maybe 5g chips faster than 4g at the end of the year with the snapdragon being in the cheaper phones. Gains really giving up. Stocks up just 1 . Apple down slightly on the day and that is also sensitive to 5g. I am sure we will talk about apple again soon. Chips was one bright spot in an otherwise neutral to risk off day. Emily ok, Abigail Doolittle for us in new york. Thanks so much for breaking it down. While a lawsuit in california against uber and lyft for ms. Classifying workers is in water, San Francisco is coming for doordash. Why doordash specifically . I spoke to the San FranciscoDistrict Attorney about a new lawsuit filed against doordash. Take a listen. Mr. Boudin we understand that the crimes that do the most damage to Public Safety and trust are the crimes that most District Attorney offices do not investigate or pursue at all. Crimes like ms. Classifying workers or wage theft on a massive scale which exactly what our lawsuit alleges doordash has been doing for years. We know in order to keep the public safe and in order to build trust in the criminal justice system, we have to start enforcing the laws equally. It is not enough to simply prosecute people arrested on street corners. We need to make sure we are investigating crimes committed in Corporate Board rooms. Emily this is based on a controversial law that went into effect on january. That Delivery Driver should be considered employees. What do you think doordash was doing wrong . Mr. Boudin i dont view the law as controversial. Weve had all three branches of california government speak to it. I understand there is opposition within some tech companies, but the reality is the California Supreme Court has ruled on the issue. The California Legislature has codified the Supreme Court ruling. The governor has spoken to the issue as well. The allegation is that doordash is systematically and intentionally misclassifying its employees as independent contractors. And is doing so in order to avoid fairly competing with other companies and avoid complying with laws that protect workers and require paying into state unemployment and workers compensation. Emily what about uber, what about instacart . All of these Companies Fall under a similar umbrella. Will you take action against them too . Mr. Boudin we are certainly not going to limit our Economic Crimes against workers unit which i created a few weeks ago to one lawsuit. Emily so, are you actively working or pursuing cases against those companies as well . Mr. Boudin my colleagues in the Attorney Generals Office and a number of City Attorneys Office is filed a similar lawsuit against uber and lyft a few weeks ago. I do expect from my office or other Government Agencies around the state that some of the other companies you list will be required to comply with the law and determines who is an employee, who is an independent contractor. We have seen a number of these companies engage in flagrant violations much to the detriment of their employees, the public as a whole and the state of california. Emily in a response, doordash gave us a statement saying todays action seeks to disrupt the essential services doordash provides, serving hundreds of thousands of people the valuable work opportunities, depriving local restaurants of desperately needed revenue and making it more difficult for consumers to receive prepared food, groceries and other essentials safely and reliably. What is your response to that . Mr. Boudin it misstates the core issue which is doordashs refusal to abide by the law and pay its fair share. Its unfair to other companies that follow along. It is unfair to employees who have been many instances been paid less than minimum wage and given no benefits that the law requires. Its unfair to the taxpayers of california who are left paying the bill when we have massive so shortages in unemployment and there is no payment in the on and plummet fun because companies have illegally refused to contribute. Emily you are saying these workers deserve minimum wage, sick leave, even restitution. What would doordash have to do to make this right . Are you talking about years of back pay . Mr. Boudin the statute provides remedies that are quite clear and we lay them out in detail in the complaint we filed in court yesterday. I believe the statute contemplates 2500 in penalties per violation which can be doubled in some instances if the violation is against an employee who is disabled or in other some other protected class. Emily doordash had been fighting this law along with other companies. If the law is overturned, what about that . mr. Boudin;l Assembly Bill five is the lot mr. Boudin Assembly Bill five is the law at issue. Doordash, uber and lyft, other companies are very welcome to engage in lobbying in the legislative process to change the law if they disagree with it. What they cannot do and will not be allowed to do on my watch is flagrantly violate the law as it exists. Emily have you been talking . Mr. Boudin we have gotten a lot of feedback, overwhelmingly supportive. Many people have reached out over social media and other means urging us to expand the lawsuit to include other companies you mentioned. People feel that it is outrageous that they have had tips given to them garnished by their employer, that they have been mistreated, they have been forced to sign contracts on occasion, and they have been basically working in conditions that make it impossible for them to get the full benefits of being an employee. Emily some other things your office partnering with airbnb and lyft to fight domestic violence. I would love to hear other issues and potential cases you are exploring that pertains to the tech community. Mr. Boudin San Francisco is an long has been home to the tech industry. It is a great part of this citys economy and workforce and cultural identity. We are eager to work with all those companies that contribute to the city and follow the law. Im really excited about our partnership with airbnb that provides nocost housing in emergency circumstances to victims of domestic violence. Or our partnership with lyft that allows victims of Sexual Assault to get Free Transportation to a hospit