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| Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey announced the short message platform would bar all political ads as part of an effort to curb misinformation (AFP Photo/ Prakash SINGH) |
Washington (AFP) - Twitter will stop accepting political advertising globally on its platform, the company said, responding to growing concerns over misinformation from politicians on social media.
Chief
executive Jack Dorsey tweeted 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."
But Social
media behemoth Facebook looks unlikely to follow Twitter's lead, with CEO Mark
Zuckerberg holding to his line that he would let political figures speak
freely, and count on voters to judge truthfulness.
"In a
democracy, I don't think it's right for private companies to censor politicians
or the news," Zuckerberg said in an earnings call with analysts, the
transcript of which he posted on Facebook.
Dorsey said
Twitter's new policy, details of which will be unveiled next month and enforced
from November 22, would ban ads on political issues as well as from candidates.
"We
considered stopping only candidate ads, but issue ads present a way to
circumvent," he said.
"Additionally,
it isn't fair for everyone but candidates to buy ads for issues they want to
push. So we're stopping these too."
Dorsey said
the company took the action to head off potential problems from "machine
learning-based optimization of messaging and micro-targeting, unchecked
misleading information, and deep fakes."
Twitter's
move comes in contrast to Facebook's policy that allows political speech and
ads to run without fact-checking.
Zuckerberg
has said political advertising is not a major source of revenue but he believes
it is important to allow everyone a "voice," and banning political
ads would favor incumbents.
Ads were
important to candidates and groups the media wouldn't cover, he said. And it
would be hard to know where to draw the line, he said: "Would we really
block ads for important political issues like climate change or women's
empowerment?"
Dorsey said
he disagreed with Zuckerberg's assessment.
"We
have witnessed many social movements reach massive scale without any political
advertising. I trust this will only grow," he added.
"This
is the right thing to do for democracy in America and all over the world,"
2016 US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted.
Twitter's
chief financial officer Ned Segal said the move would have little financial
impact.
"Since
we are getting questions: This decision was based on principle, not
money," he said. "As context, we've disclosed that political ad spend
for the 2018 US midterms was (less than) $3M."
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Twitter's
new policy barring political advertising is in contrast to the stand from
Facebook, whose CEO Mark Zuckerberg has vowed to allow all users a
"voice"
(AFP Photo/MANDEL NGAN)
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The Trump
conundrum
Social
media platforms have been challenged by President Donald Trump's campaign and
its use of ads that contain claims critics say have been debunked by
independent fact-checkers.
"Twitter
just walked away from hundreds of millions of dollars of potential revenue, a
very dumb decision for their stockholders," Trump 2020 campaign manager
Brad Parscale said.
"Will
Twitter also be stopping ads from biased liberal media outlets who will now run
unchecked as they buy obvious political content meant to attack Republicans?"
Democrats
have stepped up pressure on Facebook to remove political ads, and a group of
employees has also called for stronger efforts by the social network to clamp
down on "civic misinformation" from politicians.
Other
initial reactions to the Twitter announcement was positive.
"Until
privately-owned social media platforms can develop and consistently enforce
standards to prevent demonstrably inaccurate information in political
advertising, this is the right move," said Michelle Amazeen, a Boston
University professor specializing in political communication.
Nina
Jankowicz, a Wilson Center fellow specializing in disinformation, also welcomed
the decision.
"It's
great that this move has been made globally and not just within the United States,"
she said.
"Too
often these companies operate in a cloud of willful ignorance about the effects
their products have outside our borders."
Jankowicz
said the decision could level the playing field by preventing wealthier
candidates and groups dominating the social conversation.
"Paid
speech essentially quashes some groups' ability to speak out and be heard
because they can't compete with the reach that their richer counterparts pay
for," she said.
More
cautiously, eMarketer senior analyst Jasmine Enberg said it remained unclear
how much impact the change would have, given that political advertising is not
a major part of Twitter's core business.
"And
given the nature of the platform, people, publishers and politicians will still
use Twitter to discuss politics organically, meaning that it won't fully solve
the problem of misinformation," Enberg said.
Syracuse
University professor Jennifer Grygiel also was skeptical, noting in a tweet:
"Twitter has promised lots of things in the past that they haven't
delivered on.
"We
have to wait and see how effective the new political policy will be."
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