- Jack Dorsey.Twitter re-appoints his co-founder as CEO
The founder and CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, announced on Wednesday the company's decision to end the publication of "paid political propaganda" on the global social network.
"We believe that the scope of the political message must be earned, not bought," he said, in a series of messages on Twitter. "A political message gains reach when people decide to follow an account or 'retweet'. Paying for that reach ends that decision, forcing highly optimized and directed messages about people," he argued.
Thus, he stressed that the company "believes that this decision should not be put at risk for the money" and noted that "while Internet advertising is incredibly powerful and very effective for commercial advertisers, that power poses significant risks to the politics, where it can be used to influence votes that affect the lives of millions of people. "
Dorsey has argued that "political advertisements on the Internet pose completely new challenges for civic discourse", before pointing out that the consequences include "unproven misleading information and deep falsehoods" at "increasing speed, sophistication and a superlative scale."
"These challenges will affect all communication on the Internet, not just propaganda ads. It is better to focus our efforts on the causes of origin, without the additional burden and complexity of money," he said.
In this regard, he stressed that "trying to fix both means not adding any good", which "damages the credibility" of Twitter. "It is not credible that we say: 'We are working hard to prevent people from playing with our systems to publish misleading information, but if someone pays us to address a person and force them to see their propaganda, they can say whatever they want.'"
Dorsey has pointed out that the company considered stopping the propaganda of candidates only, although he considered that "there was a way to get around it." "Moreover, it is not fair that all but the candidates can buy publicity on matters they want to promote," he said.
He also said he is aware that "some will say that the actions taken today could favor the candidates, but many social movements of a massive scale have been seen without political announcements." "I trust this will only increase," he added.
"The transparency in the requirements for the ads is a progress, but it is not enough. The Internet gives totally new capabilities and regulators have to think beyond the present to ensure a balanced playing field," he said.
Finally, he said that the decision "is not about freedom of expression, but about paying to achieve scope." "Paying to increase the scope of a political discourse has significant ramifications that the current political infrastructure may not be prepared to manage. It is worth taking a step back to address it," he has settled.
The company's final policy in this regard will be published on November 15, including some exceptions, such as announcements to encourage voter registration, and will begin to be applied from the 22 of that month.
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