# Twitter Bans Political Adds



## billapong (Oct 31, 2019)

https://news.sky.com/story/twitter-bans-all-political-advertising-says-ceo-jack-dorsey-11849565

Twitter has decided to ban all direct political advertising on their site. This new policy to take effect near the end of Nov 2019 is meant to defend the public from deep fakes, misinformation and general influence. While I agree that deep fakes and misinformation (fake news) is a real threat, the traditional model of advertising for general influence is not a bad thing regardless of who is advertising.

Overall *I agree with this decision* as much as I agree with Zuckerberg allowing political content, but then not picking sides on Facebook. It would be one thing if Twitter decided that it would censor ads based on things like facts (because in the USA one side doesn't base their reality on facts, they claim things are factual based solely on how things makes them feel - so you could see how that could lead to problems), but since Twitter isn't picking sides I see no issue here with bias.

Twitter is also a private company so I don't believe that any Government should dictate what they can and cannot do on their site. This is also a World Wide Policy that effects every country and every election, including the upcoming ones in the UK.

What do you think? Do you approve or disapprove?


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## Viri (Oct 31, 2019)

Politicians being on social media was a mistake.


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## billapong (Oct 31, 2019)

Viri said:


> Politicians being on social media was a mistake.



I generally think social media itself was a mistake and it's still a really bad choice to use it. At least if you use it don't put any of your actual real information on it. The ways things are going in 10-20 years a lot of people might end up dead because of what they're posting now. (Let's hope the Liberals don't get their socialism so that doesn't happen).

I don't think this policy prevents politicians from making accounts or posting, but prevents politicians from buying ads. I'm not too sure about how Twitter actually works, because I don't use social media. I just know a lot of people do and that I think it's great that the platform isn't going to be bias (this policy prevents that from ever being an actual option).


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## skullskullskull (Oct 31, 2019)

There are still a lot of problems with getting information from social media  that this doesn't solve. Politicians and political groups still have an account _and can campaign on the platform_. Election stealing Russian hacker bots are still running wild.  We are still stupid and believe lies because the person saying it is popular or because the lies are repeated.

Pulling the political ads off twitter just protects twitter from appearing complacent in all the electioneering already going on.


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## billapong (Oct 31, 2019)

skullskullskull said:


> Election stealing Russian hacker bots are still running wild.



To be fair there's a lot of Iranian, North Korean and Chinese agents (wouldn't call real people "bots") doing the same thing. They're just good at hiding their real location while deflecting back to Russia (and since Liberals still think Russia is our only enemy they fall for it).

What would you think about a complete no-political discussion ban? Would you still use Twitter if you couldn't talk politics?


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## Xzi (Oct 31, 2019)

This is the proper and ethical thing to do, which is why I'm pleasantly surprised at Dorsey taking this stance.  OTOH, since he's never proven himself to have any ethics, it's unsurprising that Zuckerbot's stance is the exact opposite: putting profits ahead of everything else.


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## skullskullskull (Oct 31, 2019)

billapong said:


> To be fair there's a lot of Iranian, North Korean and Chinese agents (wouldn't call real people "bots") doing the same thing. They're just good at hiding their real location while deflecting back to Russia (and since Liberals still think Russia is our only enemy they fall for it).
> 
> What would you think about a complete no-political discussion ban? Would you still use Twitter if you couldn't talk politics?



The problem with bots is that we have this stupid idea that "1 account equals 1 human" and then base our decisions around the consensus of accounts rather than people. If Kim Jong wants to go on twitter to subvert foreign elections, he shouldn't get to hide behind a hundred sock puppet accounts. I would have liked it if twitter cracked down on bots/users with extra accounts rather than announce that they're not taking political money, but well, one of those things is easier to do than the other. Like you said though, it's their site and they should be allowed to run it how they see fit but IMO simply banning political ads doesn't do much. The 2020 election is going to be a mudslinging fest and it's twitter's best interest to be as neutral appearing as possible.


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## DarthDub (Oct 31, 2019)

I just realized something.. I've never had to deal with captchas while using Twitter (except when I first signed up to make an account). I did notice a spam bot the other day. They should probably work on curbing bots in general from posting.


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## spotanjo3 (Oct 31, 2019)

Good! The political sucks big time!!! Hate them. Always corrupted and always will be corruption. Disgusting human being scum that they are!


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## notimp (Oct 31, 2019)

Good.

Microtargeting political ads is a serious issue in my POV. I've ranted about it in here before.


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## Searinox (Nov 3, 2019)

The fewer instances of money in politics the better.


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## cots (Nov 16, 2019)

I got a DNS block on that shit site. I don't care what they do or don't do.


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