Twitter has decided to completely phase out political advertising, no exceptions.
What will be banned and when?
The ban comes into force on November 22, and a week earlier, on November 15, the company promises to release a detailed statement about this.
“We have made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter worldwide,” tweeted Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.
The ban applies to all advertisements relating to certain parties and candidates. That is, it will be possible to campaign to come to the elections, but calling to vote for someone specific will not.
Why?
Of course, Twitter loses profit as a result.The company's chief financial officer, Ned Segal, says political advertising in the U.S. brought in less than $3 million last year. Despite this, Twitter's position is fundamental: political advertising poses risks to politics because it can be used to influence votes and touch the lives of millions of people.
In addition, many politicians lie, and the social network cannot accurately moderate such advertising.
“It is unacceptable for us to say:“We work hard to prevent people from spreading misleading information on our platforms, but if someone pays to run targeted political ads... they can say whatever they want!” We believe that political coverage should be earned, and don't buy it. People should see political messages when they consciously follow politicians, not when politicians buy space in their feed,” Dorsey emphasized.
By the way, Twitter's competitor Facebook did not refuse to advertise.
“We have a democracy, and I don’t think it’s right forprivate companies to censor politicians and news. Advertising can be an important part of self-expression, especially for candidates and groups that do not receive support from the media. It's difficult to know where to draw the line. Should we block ads for important political issues like climate change or women's rights? I believe it is better to increase transparency in such announcements. Now on Facebook you can find out all the statistics for each launched advertising campaign - neither television nor print media do this,” said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.