Xero blacklists Breitbart

Xero has pulled Breitbart from the list of sites where it runs advertising.

“We blacklisted them across all programmatic ad exchanges including Google's network. The site simply doesn't reflect our values,” Xero global communications head Alex Mercer says.

The right-wing news site hit the spotlight during the US election campaign as its founder and chairman Stephen Bannon left to become Donald Trump's campaign manager. At the end of January, Mr Bannon will join Mr Trump's White House inner circle as chief strategist.

The "alt-right" site  favours a nationalist, American-first philosophy over free market conservatism. It has been called “a hate site steeped in misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, white nationalism and anti-Semitism.”  Mr Bannon denies any sexism or racism and says the site champions anti-Establishment and anti-crony capitalist views.

A number of companies have boycotted the “alt-right” site since the US election in November. They include Kellogg. The cereal maker, like Xero, says Breitbart doesn’t share its values.

Breitbart hit back by calling on its readers to boycott the cereal maker.

Xero has yet to draw the opprobrium of any Breitbart contributors, though NBR notes a search on the site for "Xero" yields a Google ad for MYOB (it's common practice for rivals to hijack each other's key words ). Ads for Xero partners Zoho, PwC and Paypr also appear (see screen grab below).

Local sites on the blacklist?
Have any local sites been blackballed? (And here NBR is thinking of the minor kerfuffle when a Spark logo appeared on Whaleoil).

“The sites blacklisted tend to be global sites but there will be local sites,” Ms Mercer says.

Which ones? She won’t say.

“We don't have relationships with the sites themselves. These are through Google Ad Exchanges which work with hundreds of thousands of sites.

“We regularly review sites that come up on our radar and that do not reflect our values. We don't tend to make these site exclusions public because they tend to change over time.”

On Breitbart: Xero is gone but a cheeky Google Ad Word from a rival remains. Click to zoom.

The Thiel factor
Xero’s Breitbart blacklisting sits oddly with pro-Trump comments from cornerstone Xero investor Peter Thiel, a who donated more than $US1 million to the New Yorker’s campaign and is now a brother-in-arms with Mr Bannon on Mr Trump’s transition team. US site Politico claims the pair share a contempt for democracy.

The German-born billionaire shares Mr Trump's hard-line views on immigration but says he was also attracted to the candidate's anti-establishment policies. He says his Silicon Valley compatriots have lost touch with the struggles of everyday Americans.

Ms Mercer says Xero doesn’t comment on individual shareholders.

In perhaps a teeny tiny indirect comment, Xero boss Rod Drury has left the following tweet pinned to the top of his profile the day after the US election:

For what its worth, my note to team @Xero this morning pic.twitter.com/O2UQ9NHYtj

— Rod Drury (@roddrury) November 9, 2016