Commerce as Expression: Five Signals of Emerging Economic Activism

Robert Bolton
Jul 21, 2017 · 4 min read

#DeleteUber

A group of major investors demanded that Travis Kalanick step down from Uber last month. But the source of the pressure compelling the company to change its leadership and improve its model originates from users. To many of Uber’s riders and drivers, it was glaringly apparent that Kalanick — CEO of the engine-idling, less-than-minimum-wage-paying, no-tips-allowed, amateur chauffeur racket — was driving without a moral GPS.

The #DeleteUber campaign went viral back in January when it looked like Uber was capitalizing on the New York Taxi Workers Alliance’s airport strike in protest of Trump’s #MuslimBan. Uber essentially crossed the picket line. As accounts dwindled, Uber offered a string of ill-conceived explanations followed by weak concessions. Then came a series of unrelated but similarly disconcerting allegations about the company’s misogynistic culture. In a matter of days, it was reported that over 200,000 users had deleted their accounts.

Reminding a platform how quickly it can become the next Myspace is critical to keeping companies accountable. Indeed, a recent letter announcing Uber’s plan to improve the way it does business opens with the heading, “you asked and we’re answering.” Changes include the addition of in-app tipping, the end of unpaid wait times, and the introduction of insurance to protect drivers in the event of injury. Uber also released the findings of an internal investigation into its cultural shortcomings, and committed to adopting all of the report’s 47 recommendations.

Consumer activism — the collection of tactics used to shift power from sellers to buyers — is a proven but under-utilized force for influencing the moral standards and behaviours of major companies and industries. #DeleteUber is one instance of a campaign where users, threatening mass migration over to the competition, affected real change. Several other emerging signals suggest that in our present high-stakes socio-political environment, economic activism may be on the rise.

#BankingBlack

Banking black, that is depositing money into an account at a black-owned bank, is a growing movement tied to BLM’s campaign against racial inequality. Blackoutcoalition.org provides a map of black-owned banks and credit unions in the United States. OneUnited, America’s largest black-owned bank, teamed up with Black Lives Matter to create the Amir card, as an initiative to redirect $1.2 trillion in African-American spending power. I am not aware of any black-owned banks in Canada.

#DeFundDAPL

Pressured by activists, Seattle’s City Council voted unanimously to divest more than $3 billion in annual cash flow from Wells Fargo in protest of its role in funding the Dakota Pipeline. Mayor Ed Murray said Seattle, “will not stand by as tribal citizens are treated as second class communities.” TD, Scotiabank, and RBC are all funding the pipeline. You can bank First Nations in Canada.

#GrabYourWallet

Shannon Coulter’s #GrabYourWallet boycotts of so many Trump-affiliated brands have seriously inconvenienced Ivanka’s fashion and furniture empire. Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Sears, and Kmart all stopped selling her products. Boycotts cut both ways of course, which is why many brands would rather stay out of politics.

#DeleteShopify

The ecommerce giant, Shopify is Canada’s digital darling, known for its employer branding and active community engagement, both of which explicitly champion diversity. When it got out that the alt-right online publication, Breitbart, ran its online store on Shopify, employees urged leadership to cut all ties. When that didn’t happen, #DeleteShopify emerged.

On a Medium post, Shopify’s CEO Tobias Lütke argues that commerce is a form of free speech, which is, weirdly, kind of my whole thesis here. So we agree on that much.

“To kick off a merchant,” Tobias says, is to censor ideas and interfere with the free exchange of products at the core of commerce.” Tobias’s policy keeps Shopify a politically and morally diverse ecosystem.

But it feels a lot like he’s trying to have it both ways. Shopify’s software-as-a-service may be as politically bland and morally neutral as a point-of-sale debit machine. But the brand and company culture has more of a purpose-as-a-purpose, social enterprise vibe, and that seems to have deceived a lot of people, particularly its own employees. I imagine this is where Tobias would tell me, “the world is a complicated and nuanced place.”

One nuance I’ve been thinking about is Tobias’s particular brand of cop-out, what I call a platform defense. It’s a very simple argument whose logic goes: 1. Shopify is a platform designed to make commerce better for everyone. 2. Shopify is only responsible for maintaining the integrity of the platform. 3. Shopify is therefore not responsible for who uses the platform, what they stand for, or what they sell. 4. If Shopify imposes its own moral code, by kicking someone off the platform, Shopify risks sliding into some sort of totalitarian regime.

It’s coincidentally the same argument that Breitbart uses to urge Facebook not to delete racist and anti-immigrant posts.

The logic seems sound. If a platform is merely uninterested infrastructure, then it should be there for everyone to use, like a sidewalk. But Shopify is not like a sidewalk. Shopify is in business with Breitbart. If commerce is a powerful act of expression, why should transactions between Shopify and Breitbart be exempt from moral scrutiny?

If as Tobias says, every purchase is a vote, what does it mean to be engaged in continuous exchange, through a subscription model? Shopify and Breitbart subscribe to each other. They are partners, making money together. No one is a platform.

Markets are only self-correcting because markets are people. Markets get morally corrected when people demand the right thing. Since the Shopify x Breitbart scandal, employees have resigned; consumers have protested with their credit cards; and the #DeleteShopify hash tag has sent merchants looking for a new solution.

So yeah, “commerce is a powerful, underestimated form of expression.” There are consequences associated with the things we trade and people we trade with. As consumers, users, subscribers, employees, and businesses, we should consider what kind of statement we’re making with every transaction.

)

Written by

activities critic

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade