WASHINGTON, Oct 31: Politicians, pundits and nefarious meddlers in future US and other elections across the world will have to get by without the social media platform Twitter, whose chief executive, Jack Dorsey, announced a ban on all political advertising.
“We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally,” Dorsey said in a tweet on Wednesday. “We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought. Why? A few reasons.”
Dorsey acknowledged that some will protest that the action favors incumbents, to which he countered: “We have witnessed many social movements reach massive scale without any political advertising. I trust this will only grow.”
Dorsey also acknowledged an unfilled need for forward-looking political advertisement regulation, noting that advertisement transparency, while representing progress, still falls short of creating a level playing field.
Twitter plans to announce details of the new policy by November 15, which will include some exceptions such as ads to support voter registration, with enforcement to begin a week later, Dorsey said.
(agencies)
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