Twitter surprised the social media world when they announced that they would be banning political advertisements as of November 22, 2019. The company is worried about the spreading of misleading campaign information due to the happenings in the last presidential election. Chief executive, Jack Dorsey says he does not support the idea that the company would be spreading incorrect information just because people are paying them to do so. In the announcement tweet, Dorsey elaborated on the main idea of twitter. He wants to re-enforce the way tweets are seen by the public, by retweeting and sharing, not the buying of views. 

Their decision is supported by many Democrats who view Twitter as supporting people before revenue. However, the company was slammed by the Trump administration and Republicans for the very same reason. Trump expressed concerns for the stockholders of Twitter who will not earn as much money as they could, due to the ad ban. 

The guidelines and rules for banning political ads will be addressed on November 15th. Experts worry that the ban will end up hurting small organizations that do not already have a large following while not having a large effect on campaigning efforts. 

Twitter’s announcement comes after Facebook’s decision to not fact check any political advertising. Mark Zuckerburg defends the decision with the idea of free expression. These two social media giants have very different stances on political advertising. Another factor in this decision is money. Facebook’s revenue from political ads is much higher than those of Twitter and the company would take a much larger hit if they were to implement the same policy. 

Citizens and politicians wait to see how social media will continue to play a role in election campaigns and political strategy.