Twitter decides to ban all political advertising on its platform from November 22

By Babu Mohan
last updated

Twitter Logo OnePlus 6
Twitter Logo OnePlus 6 (Image credit: Android Central)

What you need to know

  • Twitter has announced that it will be banning all political ads on its platform starting next month.
  • Ads supporting voter registration, however, will still be allowed.
  • Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey says the final policy will be made public by November 15.

Starting November 22, all political advertising on Twitter will be stopped globally. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey wrote in a tweet that the company believes "political message reach should be earned, not bought."

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. We believe this decision should not be compromised by money.

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The decision, according to Twitter's chief financial offer Ned Segal, "was based on principle, not money." Last year, Twitter apparently earned less than $3 million from political ads.

The full policy is expected to be made public on November 15. As per the new policy, candidate and issue ads will no longer be allowed on Twitter. However, ads in support of voter registration, along with a few other exceptions, will still be allowed.

Facebook, on the other hand, has ruled out banning political ads on its platform. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg told journalists (via CNBC) during a conference call on Wednesday that he believes it is not right for private companies to censor politicians or the news in a democracy. Earlier this month, Zuckerberg had defended his company's decision not to ban political ads containing false information before an audience of students at Georgetown University in Washington DC.

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Babu Mohan
Babu Mohan
News Writer
8 Comments
  • In before all the toxic propaganda **** starts. I remember when my parents went to vote and no one knew their party affiliation nor who they were voting for. They discussed it as a couple and did what they thought was best for our family. And they were no less passionate than all the loud mouthed posers are today. Now people wave the foul smell of there partisan BS in your face like dog crap, and then accuse the other side of doing the same. It's like we've digressed back to mindless, drooling zealots. But there are never any actually intelligent solutions proposed. Just an endless loop of blame, victim hood and regurgitation of someone else's con game you heard on TV... Or... Read on Twitter.
  • The best thing Twitter could do is shut down.
  • I agree completely
  • Probably for the best.
  • They probably just don't want to take the hit again about censoring political speech they disagree with
  • They gonna ban Trump's account then?
  • Why would they do that? He's not advertising.....
  • And every other politician's? Did you think your question through?