Twitter is banning all political advertising from its service, saying social media companies give advertisers an unfair advantage in proliferating highly targeted, misleading messages.
In a series of tweets announcing the new worldwide policy, Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey said: 鈥淲hile 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.鈥�
Facebook has faced criticism since it disclosed earlier in October that it will not fact-check ads by politicians or their campaigns.
Advertisement
Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg told US Congress last week that politicians have the right to free speech on Facebook.
In Facebook鈥檚 earnings conference call 鈥� which began less than an hour after Mr Dorsey鈥檚 tweet 鈥� Zuckerberg issued an impassioned monologue about what he called Facebook鈥檚 deep belief 鈥渢hat political speech is important鈥� and stood by the company鈥檚 decision to run unchecked political ads.
鈥淪ome people accuse us of allowing speech because they think all we care about is making money, and that鈥檚 wrong,鈥� Zuckerberg said on the earnings call. 鈥淚 can assure you that from a business perspective, the controversy this creates far outweighs the very small percentage of our business that these political ads make up.鈥�
To put that in perspective, he said Facebook鈥檚 recent five billion dollars Federal Trade Commission fine was more than 10 times that.
The controversy around political misinformation ramped up in September when Twitter, along with Facebook and Google, refused to remove a misleading video ad from US president Donald Trump鈥檚 campaign that targeted former vice president Joe Biden, a leading Democratic presidential candidate.
In response, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, another presidential hopeful, ran an ad on Facebook taking aim at聽 Zuckerberg. The ad falsely claimed that Zuckerberg endorsed 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. Google did not have immediate comments on Twitter鈥檚 policy change.
Twitter currently only allows certified campaigns and organisations to run political ads for candidates and issues. The latter tend to advocate on broader issues such as climate change, abortion rights and immigration.
The company said it will make some exceptions, such as allowing ads that encourage voter turnout. It will describe those in a detailed policy it plans to release on November 15. Twitter鈥檚 policy will start on November 22.
Trump鈥檚 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, called Twitter鈥檚 change a 鈥渧ery dumb decision鈥� in a statement on Wednesday. 鈥淭his is yet another attempt to silence conservatives, since Twitter knows President Trump has the most sophisticated online program ever,鈥� said Parscale.
The presidential campaign for Biden said it was 鈥渦nfortunate鈥� that companies would think the only option was to completely ban political ads. 鈥淲hen faced with a choice between ad dollars and the integrity of our democracy, it is encouraging that, for once, revenue did not win out,鈥� said Bill Russo, the deputy communications director for Biden鈥檚 campaign, in a statement.
