Twitter is set to ban all political advertising globally as it of the view that ‘political message reach should be earned not brought’.
The company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jack Dorsey on Thursday revealed that it will be enforcing its new policy from November 22 and the full details of the policy will be disclosed to the public on November 15.
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Dorsey on Thursday stated on his Twitter handle that a political message earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet.
He also stated that the reach of a political message ‘should not be compromised by money’.
Dorsey tweeted, ‘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.’
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He claimed that internet advertising is a powerful tool which hugely benefits commercial advertisers but ‘brings significant risks to politics, where it can be used to influence votes to affect the lives of millions’.
Dorsey also claimed that internet political ads present ‘new challenges to civic discourse’.
These challenges included ‘machine learning-based optimization of messaging and micro-targeting, unchecked misleading information, and deep fakes’.
According to Dorsey, these challenges ‘will affect ALL internet communication, not just political ads’.
He tweeted, ‘We’re well aware we‘re a small part of a much larger political advertising ecosystem. Some might argue our actions today could favor incumbents. But we have witnessed many social movements reach massive scale without any political advertising. I trust this will only grow.’
Dorsey also claimed that paying for the reach of a political message ‘has significant ramifications that today’s democratic infrastructure may not be prepared to handle’.
It may be mentioned that the major decision of Twitter came after social media rival Facebook recently ruled out a ban on political ads.
Facebook specifically has been widely criticized for its policy of not fact-checking ads run by politicians.
However, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has strongly defended his company’s policy.