Twitter bans political ads, but not political discussion

The position of social content services have taken different positions on political ads. Facebook is in even when the ads contain verifiable falsehoods. Interpreted charitably, Facebook does not want to be in the position of assessing factual accuracy. Google and particular YouTube have been pretty vague on their position. Twitter has said they will refuse to accept any political ads.

On the surface, the Twitter position would seem a reasonable position even giving up considerable income in taking a stand. Conservatives argue that they are uniquely damaged by this policy. I can’t say I understand the logic of this position, but it somehow fits with the argued media bias conservatives see everywhere.

Here is the policy as explained by Twitter:

Twitter said ads that discuss elections, candidates, parties and other overtly political content would be prohibited. For ads that reference causes generally and that are placed by organizations and not politicians or political candidates, Twitter said it would place restrictions on them but not ban them outright.

The restrictions included removing advertisers’ ability to target specific audiences, a practice known as “micro targeting.” 

So, you and I are completely free to use Twitter to express our political opinions and to link to sources. Individuals or organizations can take out ads advocating for policies that may be endorsed or rejected by a given party (e.g., climate change). This seems about as reasonable a policy as would be possible.

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