Twitter has banned political advertising on the micro social media platform.
"We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally," says CEO Jack Dorsey.
"We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought."
The announcement came as controversy followed Facebook's position allowing politicians to advertise false statements.
Dorsey says a political message earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet.
"Paying for reach removes that decision, forcing highly optimized and targeted political messages on people," he says. "We believe this decision should not be compromised by money."
He pointed to machine learning-based optimisation of messaging and micro-targeting whcih coluld lead to misleading information,and deep fakes.
"We’re well aware we‘re a small part of a much larger political advertising ecosystem. Some might argue our actions today could favour incumbents," he says.
"But we have witnessed many social movements reach massive scale without any political advertising. I trust this will only grow."
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.