Twitter announces plan to ban all political advertising

Twitter have taken the step to ban political ads on its platform
AP
Bronwen Weatherby30 October 2019

Twitter will ban political advertising on its platform from next month, in a move which will put pressure onto Facebook.

CEO Jack Dorsey announced the move on Wednesday, saying the company believes "political message reach should be earned, not bought".

He said: "We've made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally."

The move will increase pressure on Facebook, who said this month that it will not fact-check adverts by politicians or their campaigns, which could allow the spread of misinformation.

Facebook continues to defend running paid political ads, even false ones, as a free speech priority.

Twitter's new policy will be rolled out globally to all election and political ads from November 22.

Its timing will mean it will come into force 20 days prior to the UK's general election on December 12.

"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," Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said Wednesday in a series of tweets announcing the new policy.

In Facebook's earnings conference call - which began less than an hour after Dorsey's tweet - Zuckerberg issued an impassioned monologue about what he called Facebook's deep belief "that political speech is important" and stood by the company's decision to run unchecked political ads.

He denied this choice is financially motivated, saying such ads make up less than half of a percent of the company's revenue.

To put that in perspective, he added, Facebook's recent $5 billion Federal Trade Commission fine was more than 10 times that.

"This is complex stuff. Anyone who says the answer is simple hasn't thought about the nuances and downstream challenges," he said. "I don't think anyone can say that we are not doing what we believe or we haven't thought hard about these issues."

Google did not have an immediate comment on Twitter's policy change.

Trump's campaign manager called Twitter's change a "very dumb decision" in a statement Wednesday.

"This is yet another attempt to silence conservatives, since Twitter knows President Trump has the most sophisticated online program ever," campaign manager Brad Parscale said.

Political advertising makes up a small sliver of Twitter's overall revenue. The company does not break out specific figures each quarter, but said political ad spending for the 2018 midterm election was less than $3 million.

Candidates spend significantly more purchasing ads on Facebook than on Twitter, company records show.

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