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Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, announced that the social media platform will stop all forms of political advertising on Twitter.
We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought. Why? A few reasons…?
— jack ??? (@jack) October 30, 2019
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About The Political Ban
Giving a myriad of reasons in a series of tweets, Jack Dorsey stated that,
“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 it would be “not credible” for Twitter to tell users it’s committed to stopping the spread of misinformation while allowing advertisers to target users with political ads just because they’ve paid Twitter to do so.
This comes after Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would not ban political ads. He feels that freedom of expression is the most important factor when it comes to such issues.
When Will The Ban Take Effect?
The new policy, announced via Jack Dorsey’s Twitter account on Wednesday, will come into effect on 22 November. This will apply globally to all electioneering ads, as well as ads related to political issues. The timing means the ban will be in place in time for the UK snap election. The ban will affect many countries and leaders who depend on social media ads to reach out to the younger generation of voters.
TikTok Have Also Made The Leap
TikTok became the first platform to ban political ads. The company says it will not allow these ads on TikTok, noting they don’t fit in with the experience the short-form video app aims to offer.
According to Techcrunch, TikTok has made a few statements regarding the matter.
“Any paid ads that come into the community need to fit the standards for our platform, and the nature of paid political ads is not something we believe fits the TikTok platform experience,”
says Blake Chandlee, TikTok’s VP of Global Business Solutions, who recently joined the company from Facebook.
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