Honestly don't have an opinion on this but wondering what people think beginnings of news coverage at WaPo: https://www.washingtonpost.com/tech...r-ban-all-political-ads-amid-election-uproar/ at cnn: https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/30/tech/twitter-political-ads-2020-election/index.html WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitter-to-no-longer-accept-political-ads-11572466313?mod=hp_lead_pos2 "Shares in Twitter fell about 2% in after-hours trading on the announcement." NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/30/technology/twitter-political-ads-ban.html?action=click&module=Top Stories&pgtype=Homepage Vox: https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/10/...litical-ads-announcement-jack-dorsey-facebook Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/martys...olitical-advertising-next-month/#a0815d762ebb
"The move to no longer accept political ads could have an effect on the coming elections, according to industry watchers. In some races, campaigns’ inability to to advertise on Twitter could give an edge to incumbents over less-well-known challengers, said Paul Barrett, disinformation expert and deputy director of the New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights." from the WSJ article cited above. Had this ban been in place earlier, AOC might not have been successful at getting elected.
I would be fine with political ads on social media for US elections if there is a verifiable method to make sure that the ads are based in the US. I know VPNs allow people to spoof their location to circumvent these type of regionally locked restrictions so I'm not sure if that's possible. @Os Trigonum brings up a solid point that no political ads on social media platforms disproportionately helps well funded incumbents who can afford tv ads more than new challengers since social media political ads are far cheaper.
As Zuckerberg's testimony showed (indirectly), a company puts themselves in an impossible position if they will try to allow political ads but remove those that can "do harm." In AOC's questioning, he said he wouldn't allow a political ad that targeted certain voters and told them the wrong day to vote. But other kinds of lies were "okay." (Like, I balanced my budgets. Or, I have big hands. Or, I will give you free health care without raising taxes.) So in such a light, it seems to me a platform allows just about anything (absent threats of violence) or absolutely no kind of political ad. Twitter has a defensible stance, and they are a private provider of a service, so I don't see how anyone can really criticize them. (You can criticize the consequences for sure, but logically, Twitter seems to be on more sound ground than Facebook right now.)
I'm feeling lazy. Can someone tell us if there is a official definition of a Political Ad that they referenced? Or would they have to constantly make judgement calls?
well that's one of the issues, isn't it? here's their page for getting certified to be a political advertiser. presumably this is what will go away come November https://business.twitter.com/en/help/ads-policies/restricted-content-policies/political-content.html
for example, the Vox article cited above observes: To be sure, none of this is to say that Twitter has resolved all criticisms and questions about the health of its platform, or even how it moderates political tweets that aren’t paid advertisements. Some people continue to call for Twitter to censor or take down Trump’s account when he tweets out particularly threatening or offensive content that seemingly violates the platform’s rules. So will the ban only apply to paid advertising or will the Twitter ban cast a wider net?
They stand to lose a lot of money. Zuckerberg would faint at the loss if he didn't stand to gain from the exodus
Why do you wonder? What is to wonder about? They have been clear that they won't use any paid political advertising. I thought they were clear.
yeah, but just think of all the potential classic political Twitter ads future generations are going to be denied . . .
I see. I thought you were wondering whether they would have shown the ad. I have no doubt they will find political advertising in other places.
