The decision to ban “political ads” on twitter is being hailed by some as the right and brave thing to do, but it is not. Removing political ads will not change Twitter’s history of shadowbanning and being extremely biased against conservatives; in fact, it will do the opposite.
The first question that must be answered is what does twitter define as a “political ad”? Are advertisements pushing for the support of environmental laws such as the New Green Deal a political ad? Are advertisements promoting Black Lives Matter, or other extreme “social justice causes” political ads?
A company like Twitter could easily determine ads of those nature to be non-political. The reasoning behind banning political ads is that they might contain false or misleading information. Still, this will not eliminate misinformation, but cause an explosion of more misinformation.
So, let me understand this: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has decided to ban political ads on his company’s site because they might contain false and misleading information. But it’s okay with Dorsey for millions of anonymous users to smear people with false information on his site?
— Gregg Jarrett (@GreggJarrett) October 31, 2019
Twitter has allowed millions of anonymous accounts to disseminate false information about individuals since its creation. Some of the individuals with the largest following on twitter have disseminated false information and made political statements that are untrue.
With the elimination of political ads on Twitter, the rise of bot accounts and anonymous accounts promoting disinformation will rise. This means that Twitter will lose further control of its platform and its users will be less informed.
