Twitter Announces Political Advertising Ban

The social media platform calls for new regulation in drawing a sharp contrast with Facebook.

Jack Dorsey, the chief executive officer of Twitter, announced on Wednesday afternoon that his company will no longer allow political ads on its platform.

“We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought,” Dorsey wrote in a tweet thread announcing the post. “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.”

Dorsey said that Twitter would share more updates about the new policy on November 15 and start enforcing it by the next week.

The decision comes amid the heavy criticism Facebook has received in the last several weeks over its decision to allow politicians to run misleading and outright false ads on its platform. Dorsey appeared to take a subtle shot at Facebook’s position in his tweet thread.

 

Dorsey’s announcement called for further regulation of the online political advertising industry, as he argued it was “worth stepping back” to reconsider whether “today’s democratic infrastructure” is “prepared to handle” the kinds of advertising his company has helped make possible.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has defended his company’s decision saying that “I don’t think most people want to live in a world where you can only post things that tech companies judge to be 100 percent true.”

But the company has been hammered for its position, particularly from Democratic lawmakers, who are frustrated that it allows politicians to lie with impunity. Some, like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), have tested the limits of the policy. Earlier in October, Warren bought a Facebook ad falsely alleging that Zuckerberg had endorsed Trump.

During her line of questioning in a recent Congressional hearing with Zuckerberg, Ocasio-Cortez asked the Facebook CEO if it would be possible for her to buy ads saying that Republicans had voted in support of the Green New Deal. Zuckerberg replied that he wasn’t sure but that it would “probably” be okay. 

Facebook has further irritated civil rights groups with its new position on political disinformation. The policy has even frustrated its own employees, some of who circulated a letter in protest, obtained by The New York Times. Around 250 employees had signed the letter at the time it was published.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate