Things Jack Dorsey Tweeted About Instead of Azealia Banks' Mixtape

Jack Dorsey, like many other billionaires (millionaires?), is a man of particular interests. He's professed to loving meditation, Lauryn Hill, and the Taoist wisdom of Tao te Ching. (Who doesn't?) But, if you've ever taken a glance at his Twitter account, it's easy see that what he's really passionate about is hip-hop.

So I'd imagine a public diss from a famous rapper would be something of a personal nightmare for him, but that's exactly what happened today.

According to an accusatory tweet from Azealia Banks, she and Dorsey allegedly came to some agreement that if she encouraged her 551,000 followers to download the Square Cash app, in return, he would tweet something to his 3.52 million followers about a mixtape she released back in 2015.

Jack Dorsey asked me to tweet about his cash app and in exchange he was supposed to tweet about my mixtape. he never did.

AZEALIABANKSApril 13, 2016

Here's the Square Cash tweet from Banks that suggests she kept up her end of the bargain:

Guys! I just got a cashtag! It's the new way to send & receive money! You get $5 to sign up. My cashtag is AZEALIABANKSMarch 23, 2015

This seems… weird. It's true that deals between publishing or media entities to swap content or do each other reciprocal solids isn't a new strategy. In fact, that type of thing is a pretty universal tenet of online advertising.

But what's unusual is the co-founder and CEO of a tech company allegedly offering up his personal #brand endorsement in exchange for a tweet plugging his company's then-new app.

Traditionally, when companies endorse another party's content or product, that sponsorship should be called out as such. So, for example, when the AP promotes a brand or service on Twitter, those tweets are labeled as "ad" or "advertisement." Media and news sites are often criticized for failing to adequately delineate native advertising from editorial content.

The FTC has even ruled that product placement and endorsement, in exchange for some value, must be disclosed in a clear and conspicuous way on websites, videos, and on-air. These legal guidelines also extend to Twitter, even though FTC action over the misuse of social media advertising has been rare.

According to FTC guidelines: "The words 'Sponsored' and 'Promotion' use only 9 characters. 'Paid ad' only uses 7 characters. Starting a tweet with 'Ad:' or '#ad'—which takes only 3 characters—would likely be effective."

There's no way to know if Dorsey's tweet would have had the required #ad disclosure, since he didn't make one, but Banks neglected to do so on her tweet.

There aren't many tech CEOs who have Dorsey's level of celebrity, and it's hard to imagine the ones who do peddling Twitter-swaps. Would Elon Musk tweet about a mixtape in exchange for a tweet about Tesla?

Maybe all of these tech celebs are bartering for tweets behind the scenes, who knows.

Regardless, as the artist also alleged, Dorsey doesn't appear to have tweeted about her mixtape. I searched all of Dorsey's tweets that mentioned Banks and found only one mentioning her or her work:

4 musicians speaking up and saying what the world needs to hear: JackApril 14, 2015

Here is a list of a few things the tech icon did tweet about, instead of Banks' new mixtape.

Rapper who is not Azealia Banks, Kanye West:

Listen to I Love Kanye by JackMarch 30, 2016

This:

JackMarch 26, 2016

Rainbows! Awww:

There's a massive rainbow over SF right now!

JackMarch 22, 2016

DM slides:

Quickly take any tweet to the DM! Tap the ✉️ (next to the ❤️) JackApril 5, 2016

Again, Kanye West:

And thank you JackMarch 21, 2016

Pigeons wearing tiny backpacks:

Pigeons wearing tiny backpacks tweet about air pollution JackMarch 17, 2016

Literature:

enjoying the cozy solitude of my computerless apartment, where the books are organized by the color of their spines.

JackApril 13, 2006

His sleep schedule. Eight hours per night!

Recommends 8 hours a night. 6 or less is equivalent to not sleeping at all JackMarch 14, 2016

No, stop:

Twitter essay/tweetstorm from the mayor of Toronto JackFebruary 11, 2016

So much Kanye!

What's happening here is pretty amazing JackJanuary 27, 2016

Cats, naturally:

mang's best friend (Vine by polymath) JackJanuary 22, 2016

So, if Banks' accusation is true, it would seem that Dorsey did, indeed, cheat the rapper out of a tweet. I reached out to Twitter and Square for more information regarding the promotional agreement and received the following Shia Labeouf GIF from a Twitter spokesperson.

A spokesperson for Square also responded with a GIF.