Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey has proclaimed that the platform will stop all political advertising going forward.
“We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought,” Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey proclaimed in a Twitter thread. This follows the media crusade to try and push all social media platforms to censor political advertisement in a blatant media attack on President Donald Trump.
“A political message earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet,” Dorsey observed before warning how “[p]aying for reach removes that decision, forcing highly optimized and targeted political messages on people. We believe this decision should not be compromised by money.”
Dorsey went on, noting,
“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.”
What ads will be affected? Dorsey claimed that “[w]e considered stopping only candidate ads, but issue ads present a way to circumvent. Additionally, it isn’t fair for everyone but candidates to buy ads for issues they want to push. So we're stopping these too.”
“We’re well aware we‘re a small part of a much larger political advertising ecosystem” he assured readers. “Some might argue our actions today could favor incumbents. But we have witnessed many social movements reach massive scale without any political advertising. I trust this will only grow.”
Dorsey then suggested that “regulators need to think past the present day to ensure a level playing field.”
He added that the final policy will be unveiled by Nov. 15, and that Twitter will actually “start enforcing our new policy on 11/22 to provide current advertisers a notice period before this change goes into effect.”
He finished his Twitter thread by asserting,
“This isn’t about free expression. 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.”
The timing of this policy change comes amidst the backlash against Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg from liberals like Sen. Elizabeth Warren and the liberal media for the free speech decision on political ads and allowing outlets like Breitbart to be among Facebook’s curated news sources.
OAN White House & Political Correspondent Chanel Rion speculated on why Dorsey made this move:
“This has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that small donors have helped give @realDonaldTrump and the @GOP the biggest campaign warchest in history and that the @DNC is millions IN DEBT. No connection whatsoever.”
OAN host Liz Wheeler asked via Twitter,
“So @Twitter, are any of these political ads?
- Planned Parenthood ads
- Live Action pro-life ads
- Studies showing cost of Medicare-For-All
- Gender neutral penguin chicks
- Religion & marriage’s impact on poverty
“Or are those ads just about healthcare, aquatic life, & society?”
