CEO Jack Dorsey Announces Plan To Ban All Political Ads On Twitter

In a surprise thread on Twitter yesterday, the company's founder and CEO Jack Dorsey announced a ban on political advertising on his platform by the end of November 2019. The policy announcement comes roughly one week after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told lawmakers he would allow all political advertising, including those spreading misinformation.

Like other social media platforms, Twitter has been the subject of criticism for the spread of misinformation during the 2016 presidential election. The Twitter CEO contends that by paying for political advertising, the system can be gamed, which he believes is antithetical to Twitter's values.

"A political message earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet," Dorsey tweeted. "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."

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.

— jack 🌍🌏🌎 (@jack) October 30, 2019

Dorsey argues in the thread that these political ads create too many challenges that a platform, like Twitter, cannot solve effectively. Instead, he claims that they will focus on the "root problems," rather than the strain political advertising on social media has brought civic discourse.

He also seemed to reference to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, pushing back on Zuckerberg's decision to allow all political advertising, even ones that spread misleading information.

For instance, it‘s not credible for us to say: “We’re working hard to stop people from gaming our systems to spread misleading info, buuut if someone pays us to target and force people to see their political ad…well…they can say whatever they want! 😉”

— jack 🌍🌏🌎 (@jack) October 30, 2019

Zuckerberg participated in a congressional hearing last week in which he defended Facebook's refusal to fact check political advertising.

"Our values on voice and free expression are not partisan," said Zuckerberg. "But unfortunately in our current environment, a lot of people look at every decision through the lens of whether it’s going to help or hurt the candidate they want in winning the next election."

Dorsey has seemingly gone the opposite route, defending the company's decision to outlaw all political advertising. He wrote that this did not violate "free expression."

"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."

Twitter will release the official policy on November 15th and plans to begin enforcement the following week.

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

The announcement was praised by some of Twitter's biggest critics. U.S. congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-D) tweeted that Twitter's new policy is the right step toward "preserving the integrity" of U.S. elections.

This is a good call. Technology – and social media especially – has a powerful responsibility in preserving the integrity of our elections.

Not allowing for paid disinformation is one of the most basic, ethical decisions a company can make.

/1 https://t.co/YtNawdnJfj

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 30, 2019