Discussion

• @albertwenger Albert Wenger on x

  Which is why Twitter banning political ads is woke but wrong https://continuations.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @peterkirn @peterkirn on x

  Oh God but... if this doesn't work, what if we have to break up the Internet oligopoly? The horror. ;) https://twitter.com/...

• @kellymakena Makena Kelly on x

  Twitter wants to ban all political advertising. Well, Facebook did that in Washington state and it was a complete disaster. I spoke to a weed entrepreneur + a bouncy house tycoon who ran for Seattle City Council to find out why it's been such a failure. https://www.theverge.com/.…

• @richlightshed Rich Greenfield on x

  Facebook says Political Ad dollars are less than 0.5% of revenues — based on 2019 consensus revs that is ~$350 million of political ad dollars Twitter has said Political Ad dollars are less than $3 million, which implies about 0.1% of revs based on 2019 consensus $FB $TWTR pic.tw…

• @jack @jack on x

  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 on x

  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! 😉”

• @aoc Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on x

  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://twitter.com/...

• @jack @jack on x

  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.

• @willoremus Will Oremus on x

  Ads about climate change are political, Twitter says. But what about ads by oil companies, car companies, and steakhouses? They're political too, in a sense—but not the sense that will get them banned. https://onezero.medium.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @jack @jack on x

  Internet political ads present entirely new challenges to civic discourse: machine learning-based optimization of messaging and micro-targeting, unchecked misleading information, and deep fakes. All at increasing velocity, sophistication, and overwhelming scale.

• @jack @jack on x

  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.

• @willoremus Will Oremus on x

  The problem with banning political advertising is that almost everything is political. I wrote about how Twitter's widely applauded new policy could backfire: https://onezero.medium.com/...

• @jack @jack on x

  We'll share the final policy by 11/15, including a few exceptions (ads in support of voter registration will still be allowed, for instance). We'll start enforcing our new policy on 11/22 to provide current advertisers a notice period before this change goes into effect.

• @jalter Jessica Alter on x

  PSA: This is a bad decision and it won't have the impacts than anyone is talking about... Thread 👇 https://twitter.com/...

• @nedsegal Ned Segal on x

  Since we are getting questions: This decision was based on principle, not money. As context, we've disclosed that political ad spend for the 2018 US midterms was <$3M. There is no change to our Q4 guidance. I am proud to work @twitter! #LoveWhereYouWork https://twitter.com/...

• @davidakaye David Kaye on x

  strong recommend. if this policy ends up in effect privileging high-follower count politicians over new entries and marginalized voices, it's not really a ‘win for democracy’ is it https://twitter.com/...

• @hillaryclinton Hillary Clinton on x

  This is the right thing to do for democracy in America and all over the world. What say you, @Facebook? https://twitter.com/...

• @mcclure111 Mcc on x

  Reading Jack's summary of the policy and it sounds to me like it will be legal for Shell to purchase ads but illegal to purchase ads talking about how Shell is causing global warming, because that's “political” or an “issue ad”? Uhhhhh https://twitter.com/...

• @mcclure111 Mcc on x

  So here's Twitter's “Legal, Policy and Trust & Safety Lead” with the incredibly alarming details pic.twitter.com/EQ3Q3Chypi

• @om @om on x

  I would argue that all media should avoid political advertising all together. Google should follow Twitter. If we can not reform campaign finance, why not just make it difficult to use that cash. Just a thought. https://twitter.com/...

• @jack @jack on x

  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.

• @charlottejee Charlotte Jee on x

  Mad how impressed people are with @jack for shooting into the biggest open goal ever. I guess that's why he did it. A very effective, and not very costly, PR boost. The devil, as ever, will be in the details. Mark Zuckerberg being bad does not make Jack Dorsey good.

• @jack @jack on x

  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.

• @fabiochiusi Fabio Chiusi on x

  “Twitter was not the first platform to ban political ads. It was preceded by LinkedIn, Pinterest, and TikTok, among others” https://www.getrevue.co/...

• @stevekovach Steve Kovach on x

  What I find interesting — Dorsey is willing to over correct now until a better solution on political ads problem presents itself. And it'll happen with minimal impact to business. Plus, people can still tweet whatever they want. https://twitter.com/...

• @nxthompson Nicholas Thompson on x

  Can I raise my hand and suggest that both Twitter and FB are wrong and that the best solution is to allow political ads but to stop manifestly false ones? 🤷‍♂️🤷 ‍♂️ https://www.wired.com/...

• @jack @jack on x

  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.

• @manvsgame @manvsgame on x

  Good on Twitter for banning all political advertisements starting this November. https://www.theverge.com/... On that note, I'd like to see @Twitch stop putting political streams in the “Recommended Channels” section. https://twitter.com/...

• @benthompson Ben Thompson on x

  Precisely backwards. If there is no money at stake then there is no proof this is about principles. It's a Strategy Credit. https://stratechery.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @jack @jack on x

  We're well aware we're a small part of a much larger political advertising ecosystem. Some might argue our actions today could favor incumbents. But we have witnessed many social movements reach massive scale without any political advertising. I trust this will only grow.

• @kurtwagner8 Kurt Wagner on x

  Also, basically no financial downside for Twitter on this. On their earnings call last week CFO Ned Segal said ad revenue from political ads around the 2018 midterms was “ less than $3 million for us.” so yeah, this won't really impact their business at all

• @benedictevans Benedict Evans on x

  Ah yes. Immaterial for Twitter... https://twitter.com/...

• @snowden Edward Snowden on x

  Wow. Big move by @jack, and a bigger contrast to @Facebook's increasingly problematic policy positions. https://twitter.com/...

• @vijaya Vijaya Gadde on x

  @WillOremus hi - here's our current definition: 1/ Ads that refer to an election or a candidate, or 2/ Ads that advocate for or against legislative issues of national importance (such as: climate change, healthcare, immigration, national security, taxes)

• @aliabunimah Ali Abunimah on x

  This is a very bad idea. Goading Facebook to be the speech police even more than already it is will backfire first and foremost on the left and marginalized voices and help elites consolidate their hegemony. https://twitter.com/...

• @moorehn Hades N. Morbid on x

  For everyone pointing out this story: Yes Twitter was making less money from political ads than other tech companies, but no company turns its back on $2 million regardless of its revenue. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

• @profgalloway Scott Galloway on x

  Twitter wasn't the first platform to ban political ads. LinkedIn, Pinterest & TikTok made the calculation that whatever benefits are to be gained from politicians paying to reach voters, they are outweighed by the drawbacks.@CaseyNewton https://www.getrevue.co/...

• @benedictevans Benedict Evans on x

  (This will be a rerun of all those people doing research on Facebook who were upset to discover that ‘Facebook clamping down on collecting data’ meant that *they* couldn't collect data. 'It was only supposed to apply to other people!')

• @benedictevans Benedict Evans on x

  Twitter banning ads for climate change will be very... entertaining. All sorts of people are going to get a nasty surprise when they find out that ‘banning political ads’ doesn't just apply to people they disagree with. 🍿 https://twitter.com/...

• @chimeracoder Aditya Mukerjee on x

  I absolutely, 100% guarantee you this policy will be used to ban promoted tweets about LGBTQ rights (esp. trans rights), even tweets that don't call for specific legislative or policy action. https://twitter.com/...

• @willoremus Will Oremus on x

  How does Twitter decide what constitutes an issue ad? https://twitter.com/...

• @mathewi Mathew Ingram on x

  One potentially large problem: How do you define “issue” ads? Seems like a pretty broad category — FB has had problems here. Everything involving an important topic gets defined as a “political ad” https://twitter.com/...