Twitter banning all political ads (updated) - Twitter, Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) | Seeking Alpha
Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) will ban all political advertising globally, according to CEO Jack Dorsey.
"We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought," Dorsey says (in a tweet, natch).
Paying for reach removes individual decisions to follow an account or retweet, he points out, "forcing highly optimized and targeted political messages on people. We believe this decision should not be compromised by money."
It's not credible, he says, for Twitter 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!”
It's not about free expression, he emphasizes; it's about paying for reach.
The company will release a final policy by Nov. 15, he says.
Updated 4:17 p.m.: Shares are down 2% after hours.
Updated 5:14 p.m.: CFO Ned Segal notes there's no change to Q4 guidance, and political ad spend for the 2018 midterms was less than $3M.
Now read: Twitter Stubs Its Toe »
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