Twitter's CEO said on October 30 that Twitter will ban political ads on its platform next month, a move that has won praise from Democrats and Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

"We have decided to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally," Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, said in a statement. "We believe that political information should be won, not purchased. "

Analysts expect the ban to take effect on November 22 and will not significantly reduce Twitter's business. Its shares fell 1.9% in after-hours trading.

Social media companies, including Twitter rival Facebook Inc., are under increasing pressure to stop advertising that spreads disinformation that could guide elections.

Facebook has promised to work on misinformation after Russian propaganda on the platform is believed to affect the outcome of the 2016 US presidential election won by Republican Trump.

But Facebook's decision not to check facts on politicians' ads has annoyed Democratic candidates such as former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren in the 2020 presidential election.

Bill Russo, deputy communications director for Biden's campaign, said in an emailed statement: "We are glad Twitter acknowledges that they should not allow unconfirmed events like the Trump campaign Trailing appears in ads on its platform. "

Biden faced Trump's attack without providing any evidence of foreign business dealings with his son Hunt.

"Sorry to recommend that the only option for social media companies to do this is to withdraw entirely from political advertising, but when faced with the choice between advertising fees and democracy, it is encouraging that this time, the revenue did not win." Russo Say.

Brad Parscale, Trump's campaign for re-election, described Twitter's moves as "trying to silence conservatives" and "very stupid decisions" against company shareholders.

"Twitter will also stop advertising from prejudiced free media, which will now run ads without restrictions because they have purchased obvious political content to attack the Republican Party," Pascal said in a statement. It's another attempt to silence conservatives, because Twitter knows that President Trump has the most complicated online program ever. "

A Twitter spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended the company's policies, saying it did not want to stifle political speech.

Dorsey wrote on Twitter that paid advertising forces "political information directed at people" to have the "power that poses a significant risk to politics, which can be used politically to influence votes to affect the lives of millions of people ".

He added that Twitter's attempt to stop the spread of misleading information is untrustworthy, "if someone pays us to target and force people to see their political ads ... then ... they can say whatever they want!"

Jasmine Enberg, a senior analyst at research firm eMarketer, said Twitter's decision was "a stark contrast to Facebook" but added that political advertising is unlikely to be a key part of its business.

"And, given the nature of the platform, people, publishers and politicians will still use Twitter to discuss politics organically, which means it can't completely solve the problem of misinformation," she said.

David Herrmann, president of Los Angeles-based independent media buyer Hermann Digital LLC, said he works with direct-to-consumer brands. He disagrees with the concept of banning political advertising on any network, including Twitter.

"The ban on political advertising will not hurt the presidential campaign, it will hurt local politics that rely on paid advertising," he tweeted.

(Source by The star)