Why Twitter is banning all political advertising from its service

With two globally significant elections looming, Twitter has made a major move that puts more pressure on rival Facebook.

Democratic presidential candidate and former US Vice President Joe Biden. Picture: AP

Twitter is banning all political advertising from its service, saying social media companies give advertisers an unfair advantage in proliferating highly targeted, misleading messages.

Facebook has taken fire since it disclosed earlier in October that it will not fact-check ads by politicians or their campaigns, which could allow them to lie freely. CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Congress last week that politicians have the right to free speech on Facebook.

The issue suddenly arose in September when Twitter, along with Facebook and Google, refused to remove a misleading video ad from President Donald Trump’s campaign that targeted former US Vice President Joe Biden, a leading Democratic presidential candidate.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Picture: Aaron Francis

In response, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, another presidential hopeful, ran an ad on Facebook taking aim at its CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The ad falsely claimed that Mr Zuckerberg had endorsed President Donald Trump for re-election, acknowledging the deliberate falsehood as necessary to make a point.

Critics have called on Facebook to ban all political ads. This includes CNN chief Jeff Zucker, who recently called the policy of allowing lies ludicrous and advised the social media giant to sit out the 2020 election until it can figure out something better.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted the change Wednesday, saying the company has recognised that advertising on social media offers an unfair level of targeting compared to other mediums.

We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought. Why? A few reasons…🧵

— jack 🌍🌏🌎 (@jack) October 30, 2019

The majority of money spent on political advertising in the US goes to television ads.

“We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought,” Mr Dorsey said in a long thread of tweets.

“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.”

AP