Twitter will ban political ads, Jack Dorsey announces

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Twitter will ban political ads, Jack Dorsey announces

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Oct 30, 2019 5:56 pm

Twitter will ban political ads, Jack Dorsey announces
New York (CNN Business) — Twitter (TWTR) will stop accepting political ads, the company's CEO, Jack Dorsey, announced Wednesday.

"We've made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought," Dorsey tweeted.
"A political message earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet. Paying for reach removes that decision, forcing highly optimized and targeted political messages on people. We believe this decision should not be compromised by money," he added.
The announcement comes amid intense scrutiny of Silicon Valley's handling of political ads. Social media companies, particularly Facebook, have been criticized for allowing politicians to run false ads.
Dorsey's comments puts him at odds with senior Facebook (FB) executives, including Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, who have vigorously defended Facebook's policy of not fact-checking political ads.
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In a speech in Washington D.C. earlier this month, Zuckerberg said, "Given the sensitivity around political ads, I've considered whether we should stop allowing them altogether. From a business perspective, the controversy certainly isn't worth the small part of our business they make up. But political ads are an important part of voice — especially for local candidates, up-and-coming challengers, and advocacy groups that may not get much media attention otherwise. Banning political ads favors incumbents and whoever the media covers."
Some of Facebook's own employees took issue with that reasoning in a letter sent to Zuckerberg and other company leaders that was reported by The New York Times earlier this week. They wrote, "high-profile politicians can out-spend new voices and drown out the competition" on the platform.
In a lengthy series of tweets about Twitter's decision, Dorsey continued, "While internet advertising is incredibly powerful and very effective for commercial advertisers, that power brings significant risks to politics, where it can be used to influence votes to affect the lives of millions."
"Internet political ads present entirely new challenges to civic discourse: machine learning-based optimization of messaging and micro-targeting, unchecked misleading information, and deep fakes. All at increasing velocity, sophistication, and overwhelming scale."
Dorsey said Twitter will also stop running issue ads, which Twitter characterizes as ads that "advocate for or against legislative issues of national importance."
In his speech in Washington, Zuckerberg cited issue ads as another reason not to ban poltiical ads, "Even if we wanted to ban political ads, it's not clear where we'd draw the line. There are many more ads about issues than there are directly about elections. Would we ban all ads about healthcare or immigration or women's empowerment?"
Dorsey said the company would share more details about the policy on November 15th and would stop accepting political ads on November 22nd.
Earlier this month former Vice President Joe Biden's presidential campaign wrote to Twitter and other social media companies asking them to stop running an ad that falsely accused Biden of corruption over his role in Ukraine policy during the Obama administration.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/30/tech/twi ... index.html


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Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Twitter will ban political ads, Jack Dorsey announces

Postby Grizzly » Thu Oct 31, 2019 12:10 am

Meanwhile, Media Ignore Unmasking of Twitter Exec as British Psyops Officer
https://fair.org/home/media-ignore-unmasking-of-twitter-exec-as-british-psyops-officer/
“The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it.”

― Joseph mengele
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Re: Twitter will ban political ads, Jack Dorsey announces

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Oct 31, 2019 1:04 am

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Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Twitter will ban political ads, Jack Dorsey announces

Postby seemslikeadream » Tue Nov 05, 2019 12:45 pm


@emorwee
5h5 hours ago
More
Under Twitter’s new ad rules, environmental groups can’t pay to spread pro-climate policy messages.

But Exxon can pay to spread tweets claiming a widespread political conspiracy against it, and touting its pro-climate credentials
https://twitter.com/MalcolmNance?ref_sr ... r%5Eauthor


Exxon climate ads aren’t "political," according to Twitter
But a Harvard researcher says Exxon's ads "epitomize the art" of political advertising.

HEATED


Twitter bans political ads — but not these


Last week, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that the company would ban all political ads on its platform, starting on November 22.

Banned ads include tweets about specific candidates, and tweets by corporations and other groups about political issues. The latter are known as “issue ads.”

We considered stopping only candidate ads, but issue ads present a way to circumvent. Additionally, it isn’t fair for everyone but candidates to buy ads for issues they want to push. So we're stopping these too.
The announcement was widely celebrated by Democratic political figures. They saw it as a way of preventing politicians and corporations from being able to pay to spread lies and propaganda on social media—something Facebook allows from politicians, and has been criticized for.

But in recent days, it’s become clear that there are some problems with Twitter’s new policy. For example: It’s easy to determine which ads are about specific candidates. But what is Twitter’s definition of a political “issue ad,” exactly? How does Twitter plan to enforce what is one, and isn’t one?

These questions have serious implications for the climate fight. For example, a HEATED investigation identified more than a dozen tweets from ExxonMobil related to climate change that are not currently labelled by Twitter as political “issue” ads. Under the new policy, these ads will be permitted to run after November 22, while environmental groups’ climate-related ads will be banned.

Asked to explain why Exxon’s climate-related ads are not political, Twitter declined to comment. A Harvard researcher who studies Exxon for a living, however, did not hold back.

“Mobil and ExxonMobil have pioneered issue advertising for decades,” said Geoffery Supran, who co-authored a peer-reviewed analysis of ExxonMobil's 40-year history of climate change communications. “I’ve studied this historical record in detail, and it couldn’t be clearer to me that Twitter ads like these are its twenty-first century extension.

“These Twitter ads aren’t just any political issue ads—they epitomize the art.”

ExxonMobil: A case study

ExxonMobil has been trying to paint itself as a climate-friendly corporation via Twitter ads for more than a year.

Some of these ads, like the ones below, advertise Exxon’s attempts to reduce carbon emissions through investments in carbon capture technology and biofuels.

We're researching the scalability of Global Thermostat's new carbon capture technology.
We’re researching algae biofuel with about 40% of its mass as fat, which can be turned into fuel. The swish is just a nice bonus. #SoothingScience
Other Exxon Twitter ads are about the multiple ongoing lawsuits against the company. Those lawsuits claim Exxon knowingly misled investors and consumers about the climate risks of fossil fuels.

The Exxon Twitter ad below contains a video and a PR document claiming Exxon is the victim of an “extremely well-funded” targeted political campaign by wealthy environmentalists trying to destroy the company. Exxon earned $20.8 billion in 2018, and is the 16th most profitable company in the world.

WATCH to understand the real story behind #ExxonKnew and learn what actions we’re taking to address climate change.
Last week, HEATED reported on these ads, with the assumption that they would be included Twitter’s political ad ban. But that may not be the case.

Some of Exxon’s Twitter ads about the lawsuits are labeled political “issue” ads by Twitter. But the one above is not. In fact, none of the tweets cited in this article are labeled “political issue” ads by Twitter, nor are several others. (All of Exxon’s ads can be found HERE—the ads that are considered “issue” advertisements contain the word “issue” on the bottom of the tweet).

A spokesperson for Twitter declined to explain why. “We don't have anything to share beyond the original announcement at this point,” the spokesperson said.

Exxon’s ads “epitomize the art” of political issue ads

Geoffery Supran—who studies the history of the fossil fuel industry’s climate change denial at Harvard University —told HEATED that both types of ads are part of Exxon’s political strategy.

The advertisements about Exxon’s low-carbon investments, for example, serve a specific political purpose: To tell consumers that Exxon is not the enemy when it comes to climate change.

“They’re promoting technologies that don’t yet exist at any meaningful scale,” Supran said. “There is not a product to sell. So what purpose do these ads conceivably serve other than to promote a political narrative on climate change and energy that protects Exxon’s business interests?”

(Exxon never advertises reducing actual fossil fuel extraction to fight climate change, which scientists say will be key to averting irreversible catastrophe).

The advertisements about the climate fraud lawsuits are more blatantly political. “They’re literally alleging a political conspiracy,” Supran said. “What else do you call a paid social media campaign designed to discredit peer-reviewed science? It’s not product advertising, and it sure as heck isn’t science.”

Great news for Exxon—and the entire fossil fuel industry

Exxon’s climate ads on Twitter don’t exist in a vacuum. They are a small part of a much larger strategy being executed across the entire fossil fuel industry to ramp up climate-related messaging and advertising.

Fossil fuel propaganda is escalating. Here's your daily dose. 1⃣BP targeting social media with "cleaner" methane greenwashing. 2⃣Oil & Gas Association presenting inevitability of oil & gas as fact. 3⃣Exxon using sports sponsorship to buy legitimacy through association. 1/n
I'm glad that @ezraklein is doing a climate series, but I'd take it a lot more seriously if his network wasn't also running a bunch of API ads (in the Clean Air Act ep of The Weeds? come ON) and making the American Enterprise Institute's podcast for them.
This messaging and advertising is a direct response to the growing climate activist movement, which increasingly recognizes scientific reality: that the 1.5 degree Celsius target requires a complete phase-out of the fossil fuel economy.

It’s not just climate activists saying that, either. Leading Democratic presidential candidates are, too. “Without question, the 2020 Democratic presidential field is the most anti-fossil fuel in history,” E&E News reported in September. “Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said he would consider pursuing criminal charges against fossil fuel executives. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has accused the oil and gas industry of corruption. And former Vice President Joe Biden has pledged to "take action" against energy companies.” In addition, all major Democratic candidates have signed the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge, which swears off campaign contributions from fossil fuel corporations, executives, and lobbyists.

The fossil fuel industry hasn’t yet agreed on a strategy to combat this movement. “We’re fighting pitched battles all over the place,” Brian Kelly, vice president of federal government affairs at Sempra Energy, recently told TIME magazine. “I don’t have a solution for how to deal.”

One solution companies have settled on, though, is paid messaging. So the fact that Twitter does not consider fossil fuel company climate messaging to be “political” is the best news they’ve gotten in a while.

Well, other than all of Trump’s recent regulatory rollbacks.


ICYMI: The coal industry’s Texas leftovers


Meme by HEATED editorial memeist, @climemechange.

Yesterday’s issue was an interview with a reporter who spent a year investigating how coal companies are using loopholes in state law to leave behind “potentially thousands of acres across Texas contaminated with toxic chemicals, which can leach into the groundwater and soil and endanger people’s health.”


More nice things

Ya’ll continue to be nice, and it’s dope. These tweets in particular made my face get all smushy yesterday.

I'm a person that increasingly works on nothing but climate change-related issues so you can trust my expert opinion when I say @emorwee's daily newsletter HEATED is the best reporting on climate around. Totally worth a subscribe.
@emorwee And look, I get it. I do this thing where I subscribe to cool-sounding newsletters and then a month or two later unsubscribe when my morning inbox is overwhelmed. I've been subscribed to HEATED since it launched and so far @emorwee has survived two distinct inbox culls.
Your support means the world to me. It’s also essential to keeping this newsletter thing going. So please, if you’re spreading love about HEATED on the Twitter machine, tag me—I’m at @emorwee.

And if you’re not subscribed yet, you can do it below.


OK, that’s all for today—thank for reading HEATED!


https://heated.world/p/exxon-climate-ad ... -political
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
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