Facebook won’t do it, so Twitter is. Jack Dorsey, the chief executive of the social media service announced Wednesday that it will ban all political ads on the micro-blogging site. This comes as rival Facebook recently said it will continue to allow political ads, despite some criticism.
In making the decision, Dorsey said that he believes views of political messages “should be earned, not bought.” He also expressed concern about how political advertising is challenging civil discourse by spreading inaccurate information and doctored videos “all at increasing velocity, sophistication, and overwhelming scale.”
In the past, Twitter has allowed political ads, but recently started to shut them down. Following the 2016 election, Twitter began making advertisers prove their identities and in an attempt at transparency, it published a database of political ads that ran on Twitter. (The New York Times)
Hot Takes:
- Kudos to Twitter for deciding to do the right thing, rather than just taking the money.
- Ads should be allowed. People should be able to figure out what’s true and what’s false.
- It seems like Twitter is poking the bear at Facebook over this issue.