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Today, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced the platform (and we use this term loosely) will no longer accept political ads of any kind, whether from a candidate or a cause. This is a terrible mistake. They’re opening themselves up to alternative methods of promotion on Twitter, methods they’ve been attempting to stifle. Now, the floodgates will open on artificial promotion of political Tweets.
BREAKING: Twitter to stop all political advertisements – The Post Millennial
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey released a statement on Twitter, giving his reasons for why his platform would not allow paid political advertising.
One of the reasons he gave was that, “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.”
Twitter’s CEO believes political advertising can influence votes to affect millions of lives.
There are many services out there that sell retweets. These dastardly services are designed to artificially inflate the popularity of Tweets, and as Twitter puts in place ways of preventing them, the cheaters invariably find new ways to cheat. This is going to increase dramatically based on Twitter’s decision because one thing is certain about politics: Money is going to be used to get the message out whether through proper channels like advertising or improper channels like buying retweets.
A friend I used to work with in my days in digital marketing reached out to me following the announcement. He wondered if I had any clients who would be interested in his Twitter services. The biggest reason I left the industry in the first place was because of the corruption inherent to getting eyeballs on messages. It may have been silly for me to get into politics to avoid corruption, but I’ve never looked back. This friend was disappointed in my choice, but gloated about how he had already heard from two PACs and a candidate’s campaign following the announcement.
Here are Dorsey’s Tweets on the matter:
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
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.
— jack ??? (@jack) October 30, 2019
These challenges will affect ALL internet communication, not just political ads. Best to focus our efforts on the root problems, without the additional burden and complexity taking money brings. Trying to fix both means fixing neither well, and harms our credibility.
— jack ??? (@jack) October 30, 2019
We considered stopping only candidate ads, but issue ads present a way to circumvent. Additionally, it isn’t fair for everyone but candidates to buy ads for issues they want to push. So we're stopping these too.
— jack ??? (@jack) October 30, 2019
In addition, we need more forward-looking political ad regulation (very difficult to do). Ad transparency requirements are progress, but not enough. The internet provides entirely new capabilities, and regulators need to think past the present day to ensure a level playing field.
— jack ??? (@jack) October 30, 2019
A final note. This isn’t about free expression. This is about paying for reach. And paying to increase the reach of political speech has significant ramifications that today’s democratic infrastructure may not be prepared to handle. It’s worth stepping back in order to address.
— jack ??? (@jack) October 30, 2019
One thing Dorsey noted is that this will unfairly benefit incumbents, many of whom already have reach into their respective cities, counties, districts, states, or the nation. He is correct. It will be difficult for a new candidate without a preexisting Twitter following to get the word out to the masses on the platform. But that’s a price Dorsey is willing to pay even if it’s going to do more harm than good.
I, for one, believe paying for exposure on Twitter through ads is more honorable than paying for exposure by gaming the system. Twitter seems to think otherwise.
At the end of the day, this is simply a way for Twitter to exclude themselves from the criticism that’s already hitting Facebook and YouTube. It’s their decision to make, but let’s no confuse this with a conscientious decision for fairness. It’s about avoiding headaches.
Update: The Trump campaign responded to the news.
Twitter bans political ads in yet another attempt by the left to silence Trump and conservatives. Wouldn’t be surprised if @twitter lifted the ban after 2020.
Statement: pic.twitter.com/4ZdHGJw3js
— Brad Parscale – Text TRUMP to 88022 (@parscale) October 30, 2019
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