Charis Chrisna
TechInAfrica – Twitter, a microblogging platform initially founded on March 2006, restricts strictly political ads on its platform—as confirmed by their official statement on Wednesday, October 30th, 2019. This restriction applies not only regionally, but also worldwide with hopes to address potential misinformation and falsification from politicians on social media.
Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, tweeted that the company made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. They believe political message reach should be earned, not bought. You can read the full thread below:
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
In addition, Dorsey also expressed that the new policy will take effect on this coming November 22nd, whilst confirming the latest policy structure will be shared on the week before—November 15th—containing a few exceptions like ads in support of voter registration, which will still be allowed.
Twitter has received compliments and praises regarding this new policy. Michelle Amazeen, a Boston University professor specializing in political communication, said that until privately-owned social media companies can consistently enforce and objectively judge misleading information uttered by politicians, banning political ads from their platforms is the right move. Not just in United States, but misinformation by politicians can happen globally. It’s a relief that Twitter has taken this policy worldwide—and not just following their ignorance for profit.
Despite this, not everyone agrees to this notion that Twitter has taken. For instance, Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale, deemed that it wasn’t a very wise decision as Twitter has ‘just walked away from hundreds of millions of dollars of potential revenue’.
What do you think about this new Twitter policy? Let us know in the comments section!
Source: guardian.ng
