Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey recently announced that the social media platform will be banning all political advertising.
We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought. Why? A few reasons…🧵
— jack 🌍🌏🌎 (@jack) October 30, 2019
This announcement is without a doubt a strategic decision that has been based on the aftermath of on-going government battles and rising global awareness of the effect that digital advertising can have on politics. Facebook has taken the brunt of the limelight when it comes to the regulation, ort lack of, digital advertising. Mark Zuckerberg has struggled to answer with any confidence on what the future of advertising looks like on Twitters giant competitor Facebook, even after the widely report Cambridge Analytica scandal.
We think this is a great positioning move for the Twitter brand and the CEO admits that the state of political advertising regulations is not where it should be.
In addition, we need more forward-looking political ad regulation (very difficult to do). Ad transparency requirements are progress, but not enough. The internet provides entirely new capabilities, and regulators need to think past the present day to ensure a level playing field.
— jack 🌍🌏🌎 (@jack) October 30, 2019
You only have to look at the huge amount of digital advertising investment to see how big this move is for Twitter commercially. The Drum has reported that digital advertising spend for the 2020 US election is forecasted to be around $1.2 billion [1].
To put this into context, below you can see the 2016 digital investment per electoral candidate (and we all know who won that):
- Clinton: 6%
- Sanders: 25%
- Trump: 40%
In summary, it is great to see a digital platform take proactive rather than reactive steps towards bigger picture issues.
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