Microblogging site Twitter is banning all political advertising as social media companies give advertisers an unfair edge in proliferating highly targeted, misleading messages.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Congress last week that politicians have the right to free speech on Facebook and would not fact-check ads by politicians or their campaigns, which could allow them to lie freely.
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The issue arose last month when Twitter, Facebook and Google, refused to remove a misleading video ad from Donald Trump’s campaign that targeted former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democratic presidential candidate.
In response, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, another presidential, ran an ad on Facebook taking aim at its CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The ad falsely claimed that Zuckerberg endorsed President Donald Trump for re-election, acknowledging the deliberate falsehood as necessary to make a point. Critics have called on Facebook to ban all political ads.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said that the company is recognizing that advertising on social media offers an unfair advantage of targeting compared to other mediums.
The majority of money spent on political advertising in the US goes to television ads.
Twitter’s policy will start on November 22.