Twitter will no longer allow political ads on its social media platform
(WOLO, ABC NEWS) – The CEO of Twitter on Wednesday announced that the social media platform would stop all political advertising on Twitter globally.
“We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought,” said CEO Jack Dorsey.
Big move by Twitter today to no longer allow political ads on its platform.
Here’s a thread by the @Twitter CEO explaining the decision ⬇️ https://t.co/92mXaRKRhu
— Josh Berry (@_joshberry) October 31, 2019
The actual policy is expected to be released by mid November with enforcement starting on November 22.
There will be exceptions to the new rule including ads in support of voter registration
In an explanation of the major decision, Dorsey suggested that a political message earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet. He said paying for reach removes that decision, forcing highly optimized and targeted political messages on people.
He said, “We believe this decision should not be compromised by money.”
But the effect of Twitter’s move might not be as impactful as if Facebook followed suit. For example, while the Trump campaign is spending $15.6 million on Facebook ads and $9.1 million on Google ads since January, they have only spent $6,300 on Twitter ads.
Trump campaign communications director, Tim Murtaugh, told ABC News that the campaign planned to spend “many” millions over the next 12 months on the platform, after shutting down their Twitter ads back in August.
