Big tech changes the rules for political adverts
“WE’VE MADE the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought.” Thus spake Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s boss, on October 30th. Ever since Robert Mueller’s report revealed that Russian intelligence agents used social media to spread disinformation in 2016, Big Tech has been under pressure to do something to stave off a repeat performance in 2020. And this is something. Google has followed, changing its political-advertising policy on November 20th. Facebook is so far standing pat, but it is considering changes to its policies on targeting and transparency.
To the extent that these moves make it harder for politicians to say contradictory things to different groups of voters without anybody noticing, they are welcome. But they will not do much to prevent the spread of disinformation, and may not amount to much in practice.
Twitter makes vanishingly little money from political ads. Most politicians use the platform to speak directly to voters, not to advertise. In America, as one Republican consultant explains, Twitter “skews young, skews left, and it skews toward people who are already passionate.” These are not the sort of voters who need to be mobilised, or are particularly amenable to persuasion.
Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Brad...