Twitter is done with political advertising. Period.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted out the news on Wednesday afternoon, making it clear that the site will be putting an end to all political advertising globally.
Dorsey also, in a series of tweets, explained the company’s decision to take such a stance, quipping that political message reach should be “earned, not bought.”
Of course, the platform’s new stance, which Dorsey said they will start enforcing on Nov. 22 (after sharing a final policy on Nov. 15), is in sharp contrast with Facebook’s own stance.
Facebook has been under increasing scrutiny for refusing to even fact-check ads blasted out by politicians or campaigns, meaning that lies are a free-for-all.
In fact, the topic drew attention earlier this month, when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) famously grilled Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over the company’s political ad policy.
When Ocasio-Cortez directly asked Zuckerberg if the company would take down lies or not (“I think this is a pretty simple yes or no,” the congresswoman quipped), Zuckerberg shied away from answering claiming “It depends on the context that it shows up.”
Dorsey seemed to directly take a couple of digs at Facebook, tweeting out a counter-argument, with a winking emoji noting, “For instance, it‘s not credible for us 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! ”