Twitter bans political advertisements on its platform globally
Twitter will no more carry political advertisements on its platform globally, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jack Dorsey announced on Wednesday. In a series of tweets, Dorsey said Twitter's stance has been that the reach of a political message should be earned and not bought.
The announcement by Twitter comes amid an ongoing controversy over its rival Facebook, which is accused by top Democracts of profiting by allowing misinformation in political advertising.
"A political message earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet. Paying for reach removes that decision, forcing highly optimised and targeted political messages on people. We believe this decision should not be compromised by money," he said.
Dorsey further said: "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."
The Twitter CEO said that internet political ads present entirely new challenges to civic discourse -- machine learning-based optimisation of messaging and micro-targeting, unchecked misleading information, and deep fakes, was at increasing velocity, sophistication, and an overwhelming scale.
"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 said.
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