Internet Explorer 11 is not supported

For optimal browsing, we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers.

Let the Games Begin: Twitter Cuts at Facebook, Bans Political Ads

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey says, “We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought,” days after Zuckerberg said, “People should be able to see for themselves what politicians are saying.” The Internet eagerly awaits the next move.

(TNS) — Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey tweeted Wednesday that the platform will ban all political ads, delivering a jab to Facebook Inc., which has come under fire for the way it has handled advertising by candidates.

The new policy, to be enforced globally, will go into effect Nov. 22. The company plans to publish a new political ads policy outlining the change in a few weeks.

“We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought,” Dorsey wrote on Twitter.

Twitter shares fell as much as 4% to $28.63 in post-market trading in New York before paring the loss to about 1.9%. The stock had gained 3.9% this year through Wednesday.

The decision doesn’t appear to represent a major sacrifice for Twitter, however. The company said during an earnings call last week that political ads represented less than $3 million in revenue during the 2018 midterm elections.

By contrast, Trump alone spent nearly $5 million on Facebook advertising in the four weeks leading up to Oct. 19, according to an analysis by the media agency Bully Pulpit Interactive.

Overall, campaigns spent $950 million online in 2018, nearly four times what they shelled out during the 2014 midterms, according to Kantar Media, an analysis company that specializes in election ads. Kantar projects that total online spending on political ads for 2019-20 federal campaigns will touch $1.2 billion.

Twitter’s decision comes as Facebook has very publicly defended its policy of not fact-checking posts from politicians, including ads. The approach means politicians can publish lies or misinformation on the social network, and pay Facebook to spread those messages to voters. President Donald Trump has already taken advantage of the policy by running a campaign recently claiming Democratic front-runner Joe Biden bribed Ukrainian officials. A similar ad campaign ran on Twitter.

Numerous politicians, including Biden and fellow Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren, have called on Facebook to change its policy. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has said that he doesn’t believe technology companies should decide what is true, and what is false.

Zuckerberg gave a speech at Georgetown University in Washington earlier this month saying the social network doesn’t fact-check political advertisements because in his view, it’s not the place of technology companies to become arbiters of truth.

“People should be able to see for themselves what politicians are saying,” Zuckerberg said to an auditorium full of students at Georgetown University’s Gaston Hall in Washington on Oct. 17.

That sparked a letter from hundreds of Facebook employees to company executives expressing concern that the rules run counter to the top-priority work the company has done to protect users from election manipulation.

Dorsey had criticized Zuckerberg over the Georgetown speech last week, saying his emphasis on speech and expression missed the issues including “amplification,” citing “a major gap and flaw” in the Facebook chief’s argument.

The Twitter CEO continued on that line Wednesday in a subsequent tweet. “A final note. This isn’t about free expression,” Dorsey said. “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.”

©2019 Bloomberg News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Special Projects