Twitter Bans Political Ads, News Divides America's Political Camp For 2020 Elections
The news of the ban cheered many, while there were few who were disappointed. Hillary Clinton, the former Democratic candidate welcomed Twitter's ban and appeared to challenge Facebook to rethink its stance. Recently Facebook ruled out a ban on political ads.
Twitter announced a ban all political advertising worldwide, saying that the reach of such messages "should be earned, not bought". Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced a ban on all political advertisements, barring “a few exceptions” like voter registration, on its platform from next month.
He added that the company will share the final policy by November 15, and will start enforcing that policy on November 22. The news of the ban has divided America's political camp for 2020 Elections. Political Advertising on Facebook Creating ‘Inequalities'.
Check Jack Dorsey's announcement:
The news of the ban cheered many, while there were few who were disappointed. Hillary Clinton, the former Democratic candidate welcomed Twitter's ban and appeared to challenge Facebook to rethink its stance. Recently Facebook ruled out a ban on political ads. Facebook had rejected a request from former Vice President Joe Biden's presidential campaign to pull Trump ads that contained false information.
Check Hillary Clinton's tweet:
Brad Parscale, manager of President Donald Trump's re-election campaign, said the ban was "yet another attempt by the left to silence Trump and conservatives".
Check Brad Parscale's tweet:
Talking about the challenges posed by internet political ads to the civic discourse which include “optimisation of messaging and micro-targeting, unchecked misleading information, and deep fakes”, Dorsey tweeted that the effort should be to get to the root of the issue, rather than trying to fight the misinformation through sophisticated technology.
He said, "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. 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."
Check more of Dorsey's tweet:
He further said, "We’re well aware we‘re a small part of a much larger political advertising ecosystem. Some might argue our actions today could favour incumbents. But we have witnessed many social movements reach a massive scale without any political advertising. I trust this will only grow."
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 31, 2019 01:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).