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(CNN Business) - Twitter will stop accepting political announcements, company CEO Jack Dorsey announced Wednesday.
“We have made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter worldwide. We believe that the scope of the political message must be earned, not bought, ”Dorsey tweeted.
“A political message gains reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet. Paying for the scope eliminates that decision, forcing highly optimized political messages aimed at people. We believe that this decision should not be compromised by money, ”he added.
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Twitter's chief financial officer, Ned Segal, tweeted on Wednesday that the company earned less than $ 3 million in political ads in the 2018 cycle.
"This decision was based on principles, not money," he said.
The announcement comes amid intense scrutiny of the handling of political announcements by Silicon Valley. Social media companies, particularly Facebook, have been criticized for allowing politicians to post fake ads.
Dorsey's comments disagree with top Facebook executives, including Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, who have strongly defended Facebook's policy of not verifying political ads.
Zuckerberg reiterated his stance on political advertising on Wednesday, highlighting how Facebook and Twitter have diverged.
Without directly addressing Dorsey's announcement, Zuckerberg opened the third quarter earnings event on Facebook saying "we must be careful to adopt more and more rules" around political discourse.
"In a democracy, I don't think it's right for private companies to censor politicians or the news," he said. Zuckerberg added that he will "continue" evaluating whether it is beneficial to allow political ads on Facebook, but has so far concluded that allowing political advertising is the best option.
Political advertising will represent less than 0.5 percent of next year's revenue, Zuckerberg said in the call, suggesting that despite the media controversy over Facebook's policies, the company benefits little from the position. On Wednesday, Facebook reported quarterly advertising revenue of $ 17.38 billion, 28% more than in the same period last year.
In a speech in Washington earlier this month, Zuckerberg said: “Given the sensitivity around political announcements, I have considered whether we should stop allowing them altogether. From a commercial perspective, the controversy is certainly not worth it as it is a small part of our business.But political ads are an important part of the voices, especially of local candidates, emerging challengers and advocacy groups than otherwise. mode they would not receive much media attention. The ban on political announcements favors headlines and those who cover the media. ”
Some of Facebook's own employees disagreed with that reasoning in a letter sent to Zuckerberg and other company leaders that The New York Times reported earlier this week. They wrote, "High-profile politicians can beat the newest voices and drown the competition" on the platform.
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The political candidates rushed to comment on the decision of Twitter.
"When we face a choice between dollars in advertising and the integrity of our democracy, it is encouraging that, for once, revenues have not earned," said Bill Russo, spokesman for the presidential campaign of former Vice President Joe Biden. Earlier this month, Biden's presidential campaign wrote to Twitter and other social media companies asking them to stop publishing an ad that falsely accused Biden of corruption for his role in Ukrainian politics during the Obama administration.
Brad Parscale, campaign manager for President Trump, called the Twitter measure "a very silly decision for its shareholders."
"This is another attempt to silence conservatives," he said in a statement, "since Twitter knows that President Trump has the most sophisticated online program ever known."
In a long series of tweets about Twitter's decision, Dorsey said that “while Internet advertising is incredibly powerful and very effective for commercial advertisers, that power carries significant policy risks, where it can be used to influence votes and affect the lives of millions of people. ”
“Political ads on the Internet present completely new challenges for civic discourse: optimization based on automatic message learning and micro-targeting, misleading information without control and deep counterfeiting. All at an increasing speed, sophisticated and on an overwhelming scale. ”
Dorsey said Twitter will also stop posting problem announcements, which Twitter characterizes as ads that "advocate for or against nationally important legislative issues."
In his speech in Washington, Zuckerberg cited problem announcements as another reason not to ban political ads: “Even if we wanted to ban political ads, it's not clear where we would draw the line. There are many more announcements about problems that are directly about elections. Would we ban all ads about medical assistance or immigration or the empowerment of women? ”
Dorsey said the company would share more details about the policy on November 15 and stop accepting political announcements on November 22.