In an implicit swipe at the FaceBook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s position on running false political ads on Facebook, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced on Wednesday the company would no longer accept political ads.
It’s hard to think of a better way for Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to poke Mark Zuckerberg in the eye than announcing a rebuttal to his controversial stance on political advertising just minutes ahead of Facebook’s earnings call.
On Wednesday, Dorsey announced that Twitter would no longer allow political advertising globally. That includes campaign ads from political candidates and issues-based ads on topics like climate change or abortion. The move came just weeks after Facebook said it would not block false political advertising, arguing that it would violate its mission to promote free speech, even paid free speech.
Dorsey’s Machiavellian move didn’t mention Facebook or Zuckerberg by name, but it was clear who he was calling out… This problem is far too messy and complex to fix now. Instead, Twitter is over-correcting the problem by nuking political ads from its service until a better solution to keep everything in check presents itself later. People will still be able to post whatever they want on Twitter, but they can’t pay Twitter to target and amplify a potentially misleading political message.
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
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