Twitter Bans All Political Ads, Says They're Dangerous To Democracy

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Wednesday said the social networking platform would stop all political advertising – both in the U.S. and around the world.

Dorsey announced the decision on Twitter, adding the decision does not apply to just candidates but to all political advertising and rejected arguments the action could favor incumbents.

“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,” Dorsey said. We believe this decision should not be compromised by money.”

The decision is in sharp contrast to Facebook’s decision earlier this month not only to run ads from political candidates, but to take no responsibility for their truthfulness. It also followed Facebook’s announcement Wednesday that it had taken down three Russian networks targeting Africa that were testing new methods of disseminating disinformation in advance of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

Dorsey said political ads bring “significant risks to politics” and challenges to “civic discourse,” the result of “machine learning-based optimization of messaging and micro-targeting, unchecked misleading information, and deep fakes.”

“These challenges will affect all internet communication, not just political ads. Best to focus our efforts on the root problems, without the additional burden and complexity taking money brings. Trying to fix both means fixing neither well, and harms our credibility,” Dorsey tweeted.

Dorsey said just saying they are working to prevent people from gaming Twitter’s system is not enough.

Dorsey urged regulators to come up with a method of leveling the playing field.

“This isn’t about free expression. This is about paying for reach,” Dorsey said. “And paing to increase the reach of political speech has significant ramifications that today’s democratic infrastructure may not be prepared to handle,” he said.