Twitter bans all political advertisements
Twitter is banning all political advertising from its service, saying social media companies give advertisers an unfair advantage in proliferating highly targeted, misleading messages.
In a series of tweets announcing the new worldwide policy, Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey said: "While internet advertising is incredibly powerful and very effective for commercial advertisers, that power brings significant risks to politics, where it can be used to influence votes to affect the lives of millions.
Facebook has faced criticism since it disclosed earlier in October that it will not fact-check ads by politicians or their campaigns.
Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg told US Congress last week that politicians have the right to free speech on Facebook.
A political message earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet. Paying for reach removes that decision, forcing highly optimized and targeted political messages on people. We believe this decision should not be compromised by money.
— jack 🌍🌏🌎 (@jack) October 30, 2019
The issue suddenly arose in September when Twitter, along with Facebook and Google, refused to remove a misleading video ad from US president Donald Trump's campaign that targeted former vice president Joe Biden, a leading Democratic presidential candidate.
In response, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, another presidential hopeful, ran an ad on Facebook taking aim at its Mr Zuckerberg.
The ad falsely claimed that Mr Zuckerberg endorsed Mr Trump for re-election, acknowledging the deliberate falsehood as necessary to make a point.
A final note. This isn't about free expression. This is about paying for reach. And paying to increase the reach of political speech has significant ramifications that today's democratic infrastructure may not be prepared to handle. It's worth stepping back in order to address.
— jack 🌍🌏🌎 (@jack) October 30, 2019
Critics have called on Facebook to ban all political ads. This includes CNN chief Jeff Zucker, who recently called the policy of allowing lies ludicrous and advised the social media giant to sit out the 2020 election until it can figure out something better.
Google and Facebook did not have immediate comments on Twitter's policy change.
Twitter currently only allows certified campaigns and organisations to run political ads for candidates and issues. The latter tend to advocate on broader issues such as climate change, abortion rights and immigration.
The company said it will make some exceptions, such as allowing ads that encourage voter turnout. It will describe those in a detailed policy it plans to release on November 15.
Twitter's policy will start on November 22.
