Twitter Bans Political Advertising

This week, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced a change in the way the social media platform will approach political advertising.

This change is more adequately characterized as a ban, as the announcement states that the platform will “stop all political advertising on Twitter globally.” The series of tweets from CEO Dorsey goes on to say that political reach should be earned, not bought, and outlines the company’s reasoning for stepping away from supporting candidate and issue messages with ad dollars.

This is the latest development in an ongoing debate surrounding ethics and social media advertising.

The announcement comes on the heels of Facebook’s own comments on the issue. Citing free speech and concern for “candidates and advocacy groups the media might not otherwise cover,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has defended his position on allowing political advertising to continue—and has been criticized at the lack of regulation when it comes to the spread of misinformation on the platform.

Since the 2016 election, we’ve stayed updated on political advertising regulations and requirements. While regulations often put an additional burden on advertisers, we fully support regulations that will increase transparency and fact-checking.