By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 10-30-19
Twitter is banning political ads on the platform, a move that has drawn a lot of attention, not all of it laudatory.
Edge providers are under pressure inside the Beltway to prevent a repeat of the kind of 2016 foreign election meddling that exploited social media platforms with ad campaigns that could have affected the outcome of the presidential race.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted the decision and his explanation for the ban, which he said applies to both candidate and issue ads. “We considered stopping only candidate ads,” he said, “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.”
Facebook, meanwhile, is holding to its policy of allowing political ads even if they contain misinformation. » Read More