Twitter to nix political ads

Microblogging platform Twitter recently made waves in announcing that it will be nixing provisions for political ads, a stance which goes against rival social platforms like Facebook.

Announced by the firm’s CEO Jack Dorsey through a Tweet posted on October 31, the executive detailed an outline of the company’s new policy on his personal account.

“We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought” Dorsey wrote in the 11-part Tweet. “A political message earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet. Paying for reach removes that decision.”

Reception over the Tweet and Twitter’s new policy have largely been mixed, though there are many who are standing by the executive’s views on the firm’s take on political ads.

Various reports note that US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s reaction to the development is that it is “encouraging” and that it is a case of protecting democracy winning over advertising money for once.

It is reported that the Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale described the move as a “very dumb decision” for the firm to turn its back to “hundreds of millions of dollars of potential revenue.”

A final outline of Twitter’s new policy will be published by November 15 and is slated for implementation by November 22.