"This isn't about free
expression," said Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. "This is about paying for
reach."
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on
Wednesday announced that the social media site would no longer have paid
political advertisements, a move sure to shake up the digital landscape that
earned him praise from progressives.
"Wow," tweeted activist
Edward Snowden. "Big move by @jack, and a bigger contrast
to @Facebook's increasingly problematic policy positions."
In a series of tweets,
Dorsey laid
out the reasons for the decision and made clear that the policy would
only apply to paid advertisements.
"This isn't about free
expression," said Dorsey. "This is about paying for reach."
"They're drawing a clear
line between paid reach and earned, organic reach," said NBC journalist
Ben Collins.
Under the new rules, as
indicated by Dorsey, a campaign presumably could post an advertisement video or
photo to its own account—just not pay to promote it. The final policy will be
announced on November 15 and implemented on November 22.
"A political message
earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet,"
Dorsey explained.
"Paying for reach removes that decision, forcing highly optimized and
targeted political messages on people. We believe this decision should not be
compromised by money."
Dorsey appeared to take a
subtle shot at competitor Facebook, whose CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a recent hearing that political advertisements on
that platform did not need to be truthful. In response, activists bought an ad
that shows members of the Republican Party supporting the congresswoman's Green
New Deal; Facebook approved the ad.
"It's not credible for us
to say: 'We're working hard to stop people from gaming our systems to spread
misleading info, buuut if someone pays us to target and force people to see
their political ad…well...they can say whatever they want!'" said Dorsey.
Reaction from progressives was
hesitantly positive.
"I don't really know
their reasons or [if] it is good or bad ultimately," tweeted blogger
Atrios, "but at least knock a dent in the ridiculous Facebook 'free speech
requires we privilege people who give us money' argument.
No comments:
Post a Comment